


How Do You Solve A Problem Like María?

by 994527



Category: MotoGP RPF, Motorcycling RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Probably More - Freeform, slightly fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 06:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 29,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1808866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/994527/pseuds/994527
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Know where we're going with this now ;)</p><p>Marc Marquez and Maria Herrera live together in Cervera. Nobody knows about it. Everything's perfect.</p><p>But nothing's ever quite perfect, is it? Not when your brother's home more often than you, your girlfriend's teammate wants to ruin everything, and everyone seems to disagree with your definition of 'fair'...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: "I Missed You"

**Author's Note:**

> Another random foray into something completely different...had this idea originally as something a little bit different that I may still write at some point, but here we go on this 'version'...
> 
> Starts sometime this pre-season I guess, but won't follow any true events. :)
> 
> Won't be hugely long, but I hope you like it/any comments etc always appreciated! (good and bad!)
> 
> Not sure when I'll be updating, won't be weeks...won't be hours. I've not abandoned other stuff on here either...just not very successfully multitasking ;)
> 
> Enjoy? :D

“I missed you.”

Marc grinned as he threw the bag down onto the floor inside the door, bundle of energy despite the hour, throwing the door shut behind him, still overwhelmed every time he came back up the same road from the same team but to a different house: theirs. Maybe not on the paperwork, and certainly not known to anyone, except Marc’s family, but still theirs. “I missed you so much.”

She smiled at him and nodded, almost barrelled over as he grabbed her into a hug and pressed his lips into her neck, used to it but always feeling that extra fizz of appreciation. “I missed you too.”

He pulled back at the tone, frowning slightly at her face as the clouds he’d been trying to ignore didn’t disappear. “What’s wrong? Everything ok? Did something happen?”

María shook her head and gritted her teeth to control it, _not_ a bundle of energy despite the hour. “Nothing happened.” _I’m lying._ “But I missed you a lot. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, ok?”

He frowned again and leant forward to kiss _her_ frown. “Ok.” _Not ok at all._ “But you’re…not hurt? You didn’t fall off?”

“I fell off!” A genuine smile and the hint of a laugh. “But I’m not hurt, really.” She pulled up the hem of the t-shirt and showed him the bruises from the day before.

Marc gulped slightly and tried not to think about it. He had to do that, since he’d realised what it felt like to watch. Putting yourself at risk was ok; watching your brother and your… _María_ do that was a different story. “Ok.” He bent down and gently pressed his lips against her hip, his fellow rider’s fingers brushing through his hair before he looked up and stopped, eyes locked onto hers. “I watched your race. I just meant…testing…”

“I know.” She smiled and nodded, hand running back up from his neck. “It was testing. I pushed too far.”

He smiled at stood back up, hands around her waist and pulling her in. “You mean, ‘you found the limit’.”

 _Exactly._ “I found the limit.”

They stared at each other for a split second before she spoke again, watching him try and figure her out, trying to evade but not lie. “I’m sorry, I wanted to welcome you home in a better mood. Can we just go to bed and talk tomorrow?”

Marc smiled and buried his lips in her neck, taking it as a sign that it probably wasn’t his fault. “We can do whatever you want. Will it hurt if I pick you up?”

“No.”

“Good!” 

He picked her up and carried her over the ‘threshold’ into the bedroom before he’d finished the syllable, putting her down and smiling as she smiled through the ‘ow’. “You know, falling off isn’t good for you.” He pulled off one of her shoes and then the other as she looked at him in that classic _look who’s talking_. “I know, I know. But it’s different when you have to watch.”

 _It really is._ “I know.”

“You know?”

“I watch you, too!”

“I know, but-“ _But when I say it I say it because I love you._

 _I know, because I love you too._ “I know. I know how it feels, believe me.” 

Marc nodded and straddled her on the bed, undoing her jeans and letting her undo his, leaving a kiss behind as he stood back up and pulled them off, followed by his t shirt, and she did the same before they were finally undressed and ravelled up under the sheets, more distant than usual, the World Champion unsure as to her mood or whether sleep was all that was going to happen, pretending they weren’t really in the same bed.

“It’s cold.”

 _It is._ “It’s almost still winter.”

He didn’t move and María smiled in the dark. _Fast at some things, not at others._ “That was a hint...”

“Oh!” _Good._ He pulled her in closer and kissed her forehead, relaxing in relief. “Sorry…”

 _That’s ok._ “No, I’m sorry. But it’s not you. I promise. I missed you. It’s just been cold.” 

_I know the feeling._ “I’m back now.” He took a deep breath and wondered whether this was the stupidest moment to choose to say it, feeling ‘yes’ but also a large amount of inevitability. “But one day I won’t have to leave, because you’ll be there with me.”

There was a short silence followed by a nervous “maybe.”

“No maybe.”

“We’ll see.”

“I can already see. You’ll be there.”

“Maybe I will. Some things aren’t just about riding though, are they?”

“No, they’re not. But those things aren’t going to get in your way.”

 _We’ll see if you agree with that tomorrow._ “We’ll see.”

“No, _they_ will. You’ll make them.”

Another short silence before Marc felt her fingers wind through his in the dark and lips just about find their target, still talking slightly and sending the vibrations through his mouth. “I’ll try. For now, let’s not talk about that. Leave it for tomorrow.”

“Ok.” _I hate puzzles._ “I’ve got something else we could talk about.” He ran his fingers down her spine and felt the skin shiver. “We could talk about the fact that I love you.”

Silence.

 _Maybe I judged that completely wrong._ He listened to his heart start to pound at the lack of response. “María?”

Silence, as though she was trying to keep something in, some sort of reaction, followed by a little cough.

 _I think I judged it wrong._

“Ok. Goodnight.” He pressed his lips against her forehead and was about to give up before she ran a finger down the side of his face and kept going to trace a line on his chest.

“You mean that?”

 _Yeah, I really fucking mean it._ “Yes. I love you.”

Silence; different than before; less nervous. And then, finally:

“I love you, too.”

 _I love you, too._ He felt the words start to sink in and felt himself pinned to the bed, grinning in the dark, and relaxed his head onto the pillow as kisses started to rain down.

“In that case, whatever it is…it doesn’t matter.”


	2. "And Alex agrees..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoy... :D

“Wake up!” Marc sat on the edge of the bed and gently nudged her, him up and dressed for a while, body clock not really in sync with where he was, coffee made and waiting for her. But now it was 817am and he knew she’d get frustrated if she didn’t get up soon. “Marrrría….Marrrrrrr” He was halfway through rolling the rrr when her eyes opened and she grinned. He put the cup of coffee on the bedside table and grinned back, leaving a quick kiss on her nose. “Finally…” He rolled his eyes and grinned at the good-natured glare he got in return. “How’s the bruises?”

She frowned and wiggled a bit under the covers before smiling and nodding, picking up the coffee and blowing on it before answering. “Pretty good. You didn’t do too much damage…”

“Hey!” They locked eyes for a second as the night before replayed, before she remembered more details of the day before and looked away out the window.

“Thanks for the coffee.”

“No worries.” _Aaannd…it’s back. The cloudy, stormy expression._ “You want breakfast, outside? I know it’s a bit cold but it’s really sunny.”

“Sounds nice.” She smiled, wider than before and anything else she was thinking about almost disappeared, and put the coffee down, intending to get up. Marc seemed to realise that, realise she was naked, and got up as if he was leaving. “What are you doing?!”

“Well…you don’t have clothes on.” He fidgeted on his feet and looked at her in a perfect reflection of :/. “So…”

“So..?” She smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him back down. “You told me you loved me.”

“I do.” He swallowed and nodded. “You replied…”

“Exactly! So if I love you and you love me…does it make much difference whether it’s the morning or in bed in the middle of the night?!”

“Well, no…”

“Good!” She grinned at the excited disbelief and rolled her eyes. “You’ve seen it all before, anyway.”

“Yeah, but…you know…in bed, not…sunshine…” 

She got up and watched him mirror her and then take a step back to give her some space to move. She stood in front of the mirror and assessed the bruises. “Not too bad, right?”

Marc spluttered slightly and cleared his throat. “All good. Very good.”

She turned round to look at him and rolled her eyes slightly. “What happened to Mr Pole Position?! Mr ‘I’m so full of confidence you could sell it in bottles’?!”

“He’s on holiday so I’m keeping his beautiful girlfriend company.”

María felt that hit her slightly and nodded, smiling at the look of genuine wonder on his face, always slightly amazed at how _he_ worshipped _her_. “Well his beautiful girlfriend would like him back. Just a bit. Not too much…” She grinned and raised an eyebrow _you know what I mean…_

“Ok.” Marc tried his best and stood behind her before moving her hair away from one side of her neck and pressing a kiss there, looking up and locking eyes with her in the mirror. “Better?”

“Better.” She nodded and turned back round to face him, hands snaking round to the back of the waistband of his jeans. “Now…breakfast?”

He looked down at her and kept his eyes on her lips. “Breakfast…”

Noticing, she leaned up, difference in height not that big, and kissed him again. “Breakfast..?”

_And then we’ll talk about yesterday._

*

“So…you are going to tell me what’s going on, right? Eventually?”

She nodded and sighed, feet up on a chair opposite hers, outside with sunglasses despite the not-yet-summer temperature. “Yeah. I just feel like when we talk about it, it’s real.”

“Whatever it is, it’s not going to matter.”

“Hmm.”

“No, seriously.”

“I’m dead serious.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“Hmm.”

“Stop going ‘hmm’.”

“Ok, fine. You want to know what’s 'not-so-terrible'? This was supposed to be a secret. Well…somebody found out, and-”

Marc took in a little intake of breath and then shrugged, sighing before interrupting. “Ok, well…I guess the privacy will get harder, but-“

“You see, for you…that’s ok.”

“Yeah…?! Why not for you?”

“You know why not.”

“I don’t, actually. Why don’t you explain.”

“Because then everyone will think I’ll get special treatment or something. They’ll think that’s why Alzamora took me on in the first place.”

“That’s not true.”

“Which bit?”

“All of it! You’re obviously good. If people can’t see that…”

“Maybe some can. And thanks. But, seriously…ok. Alex agrees. With me.”

Alarm bells started to ring in Marc’s head. _Why have you been talking to him? WHEN have you been talking to him?!_ “Oh?”

“Yeah. He thinks it’s a bad idea.”

“So who found out?”

“Fabio.”

 _The French guy._ “Right…”

“He saw my phone.”

“Then he told people?”

“No. Not yet.”

“So he saw your phone…why does he know it’s me?”

“Because when you text someone called ‘Marc’ in your phonebook saying ‘I’ll be back in Cervera tomorrow, stay safe…I miss you xxxx’ it’s pretty obvious it’s you.”

“Ok. True. But why does it matter?”

 _Well, there’s that one big reason…_ “Ok…you know Monlau didn’t want to consider me.”

“Yeah.”

“And you know who talked them into it?”

“Emilio and Álvaro.”

“Yeah. They’d hate it. I mean, hate it. Not me or you, but they would think it’s stupid. For me. For my career.”

“Well…fuck ‘em. In a nice way.” He tried to grin it off and was met with nothing.

“Yeah, great. So we ignore them…say something happens and I lose this contract…then the only other bridges are already burnt.”

“Why are you talking like that?! You won’t.”

“I might.”

“You won’t. You’re good. You know that. Where’s all this doubt coming from?!”

She took a deep breath and then shrugged. “Ok…you want to know what happened, while you were away? Why all this career-boyfriend stuff and everything first came up?”

Marc nodded and swallowed, nervous and hearing the frustrated defiance in her voice. “Yeah…”

“Right. Well…I thought I was pregnant.”

Marc felt his mouth drop open, everything going completely cold and white hot and the same time. _Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck._

María looked at his face and nodded. “Yeah, exactly. It’s not a joke. Being female doesn’t affect how I ride. But it affects everything else. It shouldn’t! But it does.”

She watched him sat there, still staring, not wanting to give up and help him out of it, then eventually cracking.

“Marc. MARC. I’m not, it’s fine. Stop panicking.”

His eyes blinked a few times and then he looked at her. “B..wh…I mean…I’m not panicking…”

“Really.”

“Yeah.” He coughed and seemed to come back to life. “Not panicking…just…that’s crazy. That’s insane. I mean…are you ok? Why did you think that? Are you sure you’re not? What would we do? What are we doing? Do we need to talk about this? What about the future? I mean…what are we-“

“Stop!”

He did, and looked at her nervously, eyes wide. “Sorry.”

She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Sorry too. I probably could have said that in a better way. I’m not, and I’m fine…but it seriously, seriously freaked me out. I know we’re young – well, I’m way too young! But…I don’t know…living here with you…living with traveling and risk and everything…makes you feel older I think. And I…I don’t know…I don’t know what I’m saying…or thinking…I mean, I don’t want kids. Well, not for at least 10 years. That, I know what I’m thinking there. But…Monlau didn’t really want me. They didn’t like me before I was part of your life, and I really don’t think this would make me more popular. And Fabio’s threatening to tell them.”

 _Ouch._ “Well then…I’ll just call him and tell him to not be a dick. I’m sure he’ll stop it when he realises we’re serious. I'm serious...”

“I’ve told him that already.”

“Honestly, I’ll just call and tell-“

“No. You won’t. I have already. Please don’t do this again, where you think you know bes-“

“But-“

“No buts. I tried, already.”

“So what are you saying?!”

She sighed and looked away. 

“I don’t know. I’m not leaving you. But I think I have to move out. We have to pretend it’s not a thing.”

Marc sat back in his chair and felt his heart sink.

_And here’s me about to ask you to come to Argentina._

_And ask if we should put the house in our names._

_And panic about kids now? Yes. But excited by the idea in the future? Yes._

He stared out at the view for a couple of minutes before realising she wasn’t going to say anything else and getting to his feet, limbs like lead.

“Great. Ok. Fine.”


	3. Perfect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very tired, in Assen. I will be better with everything again soon ;) 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!

She did understand the reaction. She’d been expecting it. But still, it hurt watching him walk back in the house, head hung slightly and, despite the tone of voice saying anger and irritation, obviously much more hurt.

_It’s just not as easy as you want it to be; WE want it to be. But it’s no reflection on you. I love you._

She’d been wanting to say that for a while, almost since they’d first kissed, and slept together, which had been within a few minutes of each other, but a long time after they’d met. It started when they’d been on a promo tour of some sherry manufacturer in Jerez, with Repsol. Alzamora, Marc, Dani, Alex Rins and Marc’s brother Alex. She knew the two Alex’s fairly well by then, and she’d met Dani and Marc before, but it was the first time they really spoke more than just ‘Hi’ and then getting on with whatever the reason for the contact was. This time, they ended up together in the car that was taking them from the hotel to the event, because Marc missed his car and Rins went with Dani and Emilio. Marc went in the car with Alex, in his mind, and sat in the front. Alex sat behind him, and every time he turned to talk to his brother, which was often, he had to look at María first. And he did. After a few minutes he was talking to both of them equally, after a few more minutes the female rider was taking up most of his attention. There was something about her, and there was something about what she was. And she felt the same, but thought _that_ way round, finding the World Champion interesting and attractive, was probably more expected. The default setting for heterosexual women between 12 and 80.

She convinced herself that the sparkle was normal, tried to ignore the little shoots of excitement each time their eyes met, and put it out of her mind.

The event was quite fun. Nothing special, but tourism wasn’t high on the agenda of racing kids or parents, so that kind of tour was good and different. And Marc went back to the hotel in the same car, but in the back seat, with María. And they talked more, and it was harder to ignore the feeling.

After a few more encounters, he got her number. He’d got hers and Alex Rins’ at the same time, and the pretext seemed fair enough, but the grin he gave her as he typed it into his phone was different to the smile he gave Rins. She brushed it off, but grinned back, and then waited to see if he’d use it. And he did, once they’d gone their separate ways again.

_Guess who… ;)_

She stared at it and bit her lip to stop grinning. 

María: _Moto2 World Champion 2012..._

Marc: _Jaja yes :D_

So they’d started talking to each other like that, and then they’d even chatted a few times in voice calls when Marc had been travelling to and from places or delayed, and eventually he was a MotoGP rider, she was a title favourite in the CEV. And then there was another event in Jerez, with Estrella Galicia 0,0, and they’d shared a car to the airport to fly to Barcelona. This time, it was just them, because it was only her, Marc, Alex Marquez and Dani who had gone, and Marc seemed to have warned his brother that he had to share the car with Dani. So he did. And they caught the flight. Marc and María missed it by 10 minutes, after the driver missed the exit. So they were alone in Jerez airport, and Marc got mobbed, before the ground staff had given them a staff room to wait in to get some peace. So they’d sat on the sofa and talked, and inched closer and closer together, getting more and more tired, until Marc wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she rested her head on him.

“Am I reading this right?”

“What?”

“Ok…I think I am, so I’ll go for it. Do you want to have dinner with me tonight when we get back to Barcelona? As in, a date?”

She took a deep breath and felt her shoulder squeezed as she replied. “Yes.”

Marc’s phone rang to tell him they couldn’t get another flight until the next day, and he smiled as her as he talked into the phone.

“Ok. So…get us a room back in the hotel again then, and we’ll get the first one tomorrow.”

_”Ok. I’ll try and get them next to each other.”_

He realised as he heard the reply that what he’d actually said was ‘get us a room’, singular, and he looked back at María as he realised, wondering if she had; a grin and a raised eyebrow already waiting for him. He went slightly red and coughed, finished the conversation and then put the phone down.

“So…back to the hotel.”

She nodded. “Yeah. Seems that way.”

He nodded and looked away, cringing slightly. “Sorry…about that. You know…I…” He trailed off, went slightly red, and then shrugged and the cheeky grin came back. “I think my imagination was ahead of reality…”

She laughed and tried to hide the blush. “That’s ok. I trust you to be a gentleman.” She locked eyes with him and grinned. “If I ask you to be…”

Marc stared at her and then smiled, just warm and genuine and incredibly happy that she’d said that. “Ok. Good. Do you want to have dinner with me? In Jerez instead?”

“Yes.”

His phone beeped and he read it out. “Good. We have two rooms next to each other, and there’s a car on the way. Different driver!” He smiled and found himself standing up and offering her his hand to help her up. She took it, enjoying the gesture even though she didn’t need the help, and he pulled her up and didn’t let go of her hand until they were just about going through into the public part of the airport again, and the few people who’d seen where they went were still there, waiting, and Marc signed everything and then steered them towards the car.

The journey back was silent, but comfortable, and they stared out opposite windows from the back seat, Marc’s hand was near hers, then next to it, then gently taking hers, nothing else acknowledging it except for the squeeze she got in return when she squeezed his hand. 

So they had dinner, in Marc’s room. He sent for room service and then went and knocked on her door, leaning on the door frame as it opened and making her breath catch in her throat slightly as she saw him. Fresh shirt, dark wash jeans, hair more controlled and eyes brighter. She’d also changed; it was meant to be a date despite the location. So they had dinner, and they watched a movie. Then kissed for the first time, slept together for the first time, and woke up feeling the same.

“Morning.”

She smiled as she felt the finger trace her cheekbone and opened her eyes. “Morning.”

“We need to go soon. Do you want breakfast?”

She nodded and smiled as he pressed a kiss to her lips. _No regrets, then. No running._ “Please. Anything. Can we get room service?”

He nodded and squeezed her hand. “We can. But we’ll have to get dressed. So it doesn’t look-“

“I know.” She nodded and sat up, looking at the trail of her clothes on the floor and then smiling back at him. “If you throw me my clothes, I’ll go and lie in my bed for 5 minutes and then come back.”

He grinned and stretched his arms above his head, yawning. “Perfect.”

She ran her eyes over the muscles in his shoulders moving and nodded. _Exactly._ “Perfect.”


	4. Starting to Slide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm trying with the timetable!
> 
> Thanks so much so far, enjoy!! :D

María: _Marc seemed upset I’d talked to you about Fabio…does he know?_

Alex: _:/ don’t think so…I’ve not told him, if you’ve not told him then no…_

María: _Ok. I’m going to tell him at some point though…_

Alex: _Yeah, like I said before, that’s fine! :) good luck at Motorland!_

María: _Thanks! :) But…aren’t you meant to be coming over in about 2 hours?_

Alex: _Oh yeah. ;) Jaja ok I’ll tell it to your face :)_

Marc had disappeared back inside and then gone for a run. Without Alex, which was weird. And he’d just yelled up the stairs that’s where he was going, didn’t wait for a reply, and then the door banged. María sighed and turned on the shower, tried to ignore it, and waited for him to come back.

“We need to talk about this.”

“Hmm.” Mouth full of sandwich, he didn’t look up.

“I mean it.” She leant across the breakfast bar and raised her eyebrows. “Let’s sort it out. Please…?”

He sighed and put down the sandwich. “How can we sort it out? You won’t let me try and talk to him, and you won’t go public. So…you’re leaving. Fine. Great. Sorted.”

“Don’t be like that.”

“I’m not being like anything. I’m hurt and I’m telling the truth.”

“I’m hurt too. I don’t want to go anywhere.”

“So let’s just tell people.”

“No.”

“But why?! What is it? Are you really that insecure about your career that you think this makes a difference?!” He regretted it, and the way he said it, immediately. “Look, sorry-“

“No.” She stood up straight again and shrugged. “No sorry. I think you forgot what it’s like at the bottom. When you don’t actually know if you’ll get there. It’s easy to look back now and write a book and everything but you know you _didn’t_ know you were going to get here. Ok? You know that. I trust myself and I work hard and I can ride, but it’s not that simple and it never was, and you know that’s the one thing that I only ever talk about with you and I can’t believe you’d just-“ Her voice was getting higher and higher and composure getting less and less, and the frustration at the situation didn’t stop Marc from recognising he was out of line in that case. He got up and walked around to her, wrapping her up and feeling himself relax slightly as she let him and reciprocated.

“I’m sorry.” His lips were pressed against her ear and it was quiet, although no one else was around to overhear. “I’m really sorry I said that, and what it sounded like I meant. What I meant was, you’re going to get there, even if people try and stop you or burn you or push you off, and I don’t understand why you don’t believe it sometimes. You’ll get there, because you’re good enough to get there. Nobody cares that you’re a girl. Nobody would care if you were with me, publicly. Nobody worth anything will do anything except believe in you.”

She nodded into his chest and hung on a bit tighter. “You’re worth a lot.”

He smiled over her shoulder and felt himself relax a bit more. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want to go. But I’m not ready for this.”

“Are you…sure…you’ll be ready at some point? In the future?”

“I think so.”

_I think so._ The fear came back. “I’m worried you won’t come back.”

There were a few seconds of silence before she nodded against his chest. “I love you. I just need some time to get a bit further before we tell people. Either in my head, or on the track…I’m not sure.”

_Note the absence of ‘Of course I’ll come back.’_ “Ok.” He bit his lip to stop himself saying much more. “I love you too, and I’ll be here.”

*

“Hello!” Alex grinned as he walked in, not knocking given it was late afternoon, having found out the hard way that not knocking in the earlyish morning or after 7 o’clock in the evening could lead to images seared onto his eyes that he’d never be able to get rid of. He had a key – he stayed there quite a lot when Marc was away doing non-race things, which was quite often, and María appreciated the company. During the off season, it had been perfect, because Marc had only really gone to Rufea or Barcelona and then come back. Testing had been harder, but then he’d broken his leg and they’d let one more person into the loop – Marc and Alex’s trainer – so that he could do a lot of the recuperation at home. She’d enjoyed looking after him, and she’d enjoyed the fact that he couldn’t just get a call and have to leave. But equally, he’d enjoyed looking after her when she’d been ill, and had spent 3 days of her feeling sick perfecting one of his mother’s recipes for soup, which now, in his mind, meant he could cook. Which wasn’t strictly true, but he was holding on to that as proof that he could do something else other than ride a bike. He’d gone to testing with her when he’d broken his leg, too, and they’d stayed 20ft away from each other at all times so no one knew. But it was nice, those odd moments when they caught each other’s eye, to know the truth and share a smile. 

“I already went for a run earlier, sorry. I had to get out the house.”

Alex shrugged and nodded, smiling back at him. “That’s ok. Not sure I’m in the mood today. Might just do some gym time later.”

“Ok. I think María just made coffee..”

“Sounds good.” He followed his brother into the kitchen and sat down at the table. “So…how’s it going? Since I saw you…19 hours ago?”

Both of them still marveled slightly at how 'grown up' the whole situation was, Alex feeling it too even though he didn't live there.

Marc smiled and shrugged, something behind it, the usual ‘EVERYTHING IS AMAZING’ sparkle not in his eyes. “It’s ok.”

“She’s leaving.” María walked in as Alex said it, and they locked eyes for a second and nodded at each other. “Right?”

“I am.” She brought the coffee to the table and sat down next to Marc, who unconsciously put his hand on her knee under the table. “I just need some time to deal with some stuff, I think.”

The Moto3 rider nodded at her and shrugged. “I understand.” Marc looked at him in a mixture of puzzlement, betrayal and gratitude for the support of his girlfriend.

“Do you?”

“Yeah.”

The same edge that María had noticed when she’d said she’d talked to Alex was now back in Marc’s voice. “Why?”

The younger Marquez shrugged and took a sip. “I understand, maybe because I almost have the same thing. We-“ he pointed between himself and the Toledo rider, “-work hard and win just because we do. But you can feel that extra little part of ‘oh, of course they’ll do well. They’re part of the Marc Marquez…cantera’, I guess. Being connected to you seems to make people expect that you’ll win everything straight away and that everyone wants to sponsor you. Which isn’t always true. We’re separate people.”

Not having intended it to be a speech, he watched Marc’s face take that in and not enjoy it. “Right…”

“I’m not saying it’s your fault. It’s just the way it is. You’re older than us, so you're ahead, and you’re winning everything.”

Marc sat and stared at him for a second before turning to his girlfriend. _Us. The pronoun_ us. “You agree?”

She nodded and shrugged slightly helplessly. “Yeah. It’s the same thing I guess. He has the name, so that’s more pressure, but I feel it too. Or I would, I think, if we went public. Alex is in Moto3 at least now, permanently, and his results can say more than mine. But it’s hard to make people believe you’re climbing the ladder because you’re working hard for every rung, rather than because someone is just pulling you up. Even just being with Estrella Galicia, people think you’re on a bike that’s 40km/h faster and the rightful winner of every race. At least they don’t have that this year, because of the switch to Honda.”

Marc took a deep breath and stared into his cup. “Oh. Right.”

María and Alex shared another look before the eldest Marquez spoke again.

“So…what does that mean? I mean…it seems like you’re saying that until you’re won a MotoGP title, I can’t be with you.”

“No. Not that. Just a while, to get ready for it.”

“So I have to live with it like this, because you refuse to live with it like _that_. That doesn’t seem very fair. I live with enough.”

“Yeah, ok, you do. But you knew that’s where you were going and you know that’s where we’re all going. There are negative sides to success, and you have to accept them.”

“I know that.” Neither of them was looking at the other now, both pretending to be angrily interested in the cups in front of them. “I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with somebody. I didn’t know I was playing with other people’s privacy rather than just mine.”

“I know.” Her voice was softer and she tried to take the hand back that he’d removed, without success. “But the other way round risks a lot more.”

“Really.” Marc suddenly looked up and locked eyes with his brother. “Because I feel like this is risking everything, because it doesn’t sound like you’re really that bothered about _me_ anymore. It feels like the idea of it is great but the reality is too much effort. And it feels like you're leaving 'for now' so that you don't have to say 'forever' once everything starts to slide.”

Alex took the eye contact and didn’t shy away, before his brother got up from the table and walked out. The two younger riders stared at each other for a second before María spoke.

“He looked at you. The way he said that… _me_ …”

“I know. But he can’t know.”

“I think he has to know. I think we’re going to have to tell him.”

“Like I said, ok. You want to do it together, or me? Or you?”

“Me.” She finished her drink and got up to follow Marc. “I’ll tell him.”

Alex nodded and it was his turn to look into the cup. 

“He’s not going to like it. He’s already jealous.”

María acknowledged that with a nod and then walked round to behind him, hugging him. Alex’s hand squeezed her arm to show the appreciation for the gesture.

“No, he’s not going to like it. So I hope you’re ready.”


	5. "I Would Let You"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people! So I'm using my phone for internet on the PC which is painfully expensive, but I've written so I'm determined to post!
> 
> Thank you so much for feedbacking/kudossing etc, no idea why I've gone so angsty of late...I guess I like overly complicated emotional conversations? Anyway...ENJOY, THANK YOU and WOW 8 in a row!

“You seem like you’re jealous of Alex.”

Marc was sat on the end of the bed writing a text on his phone. She stood in the doorway and leant against it, waiting to see if he’d look up. He did. Which she thought was a good sign – he wasn’t so threatened that it was impossible for him to look at her and say it. He didn’t answer though, so she tried again.

“Honestly, are you jealous of Alex, and how much time we spend together?”

_We. The pronoun we._ “No…”

“Try again, and do a better job of lying.”

His eyes darkened slightly at that and he looked back at the phone. María let out an almost inaudible, exasperated sigh.

“Talk to me. Please.”

Now it was his turn to sigh, and he dropped the phone onto the bed next to him and shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to tell the truth. This is ridiculous and it’s not us. We’re the 100% alive, everything is easy because everything comes naturally people. We’re not these people, with silences and glances and sighing.”

He sighed again and shrugged again. “Maybe we’re not. Maybe no one can be that forever.”

She rolled her eyes slightly and walked into the room, sitting next to him on the bed. “Do you want to fix it or do you want to sigh for a while, pretend its fine and stop sharing?”

He stayed quiet and thought it through, before his shoulders relaxed slightly and he turned to look at her as he replied. “I want to fix it. But my version of fixing it isn’t the same as yours. Let’s be honest, every time I go away it gets harder to leave, and it gets harder to go back to how it was before every time I come back. You and Alex seem to do everything that me and you should be doing. I know he races the same Sundays as me, but then he comes back. I can’t come back all the time. So the easy thing would be if you came with me. But you won’t.”

“I know, and I feel the same frustration. But this is how it has to be, at the moment. I love you. I want to be with you, for a long time. Longer than some frustrating months when we’re pulled in different directions. So it’s annoying, but it’s not forever. And you are jealous.”

He took that in and then nodded, looking back at the wardrobe opposite the end of the bed. “Yeah, ok. I’m jealous as hell. When you cook and watch movies and play on the Playstation and even when you put yourselves through hell hiking and climbing and training.”

_Worse than I thought. Shit._ “Ok…”

Marc gritted his teeth and shook his head, everything suddenly not an admission, but an angry rant. “It’s not ok. It’s far from ok. Because if you love me, he’s almost the same thing. He’s living my life. Well, no. He’s living the life I should be living if everyone hadn’t given me the best bike and then Dani and Jorge had crashed. The life that would be so much easier if I wasn’t suddenly the benchmark. Because I know you wouldn’t be like this if I was the rookie instead of this guy. If I was the guy still learning and getting podiums and trying to figure out how to get to the top. I got there quickly and it’s incredible but it’s fucked everything else up completely.”

_Ok maybe I underestimated the situation._ “It hasn’t fucked anything up. I think it would be the same.”

“It wouldn’t.” He shook his head again, adamant, and sighed. “It wouldn’t, and I know it.”

“Ok. Fine.” _Stay calm._ “But you know Alex and I have known each other a long time. Longer than we’ve really known each other.”

“Yes, I KNOW.”

“Right. So…if we never decided we wanted more, that’s not going to happen now, is it?” _I’m taking this on an awkward, dishonest diversion._ “Honestly? Don’t you trust us?”

“Of course I trust you!” He stood up and paced around in a little circle. “I trust you not to cheat on me, I trust him not to do that. Not for fun. What I don’t trust is that when you spend so much time with him, you might figure out that you’re wrong.”

“What?!”

“You get to know him as well as you know me…maybe you already do, I don’t know…but when that happens, and like this it will, I don’t know if you’ll have a moment where you look at him, then back at me, and realise all this happened with the wrong one. Because I’m the older one, and at the moment I’m more successful…but he’s fast, and he’s learnt all the lessons I learnt the hard way so quickly. And he’s amazing. He’s…Alex. You know? And the problem is that we already talked about it before when this almost happened with someone else and we know that we’d have to deal with it. So no, you wouldn’t cheat on me because you were drunk or lonely or didn’t care or wanted some fun. I don’t think you’d ever cheat on me at all. But I can imagine you falling in love with him and him falling in love with you, and I can imagine how much that would hurt, but I can imagine how much I’d have to get out the way and try and wish you well. Because I love you both and if you love somebody, that’s just what you do.” His voice had risen, and the volume was much higher, so much so that Alex could probably hear it. “So you wouldn’t cheat. But leaving someone because you made a mistake isn’t the same as cheating. You can’t blame people for falling in love, even if it hurts. You can’t blame you for seeing all the things in him that I see, and more, and having that moment. And that terrifies me. A lot. Because…” He stopped and looked up at the ceiling in frustration before combing a hand through his hair and sighing again to punctuate the last, calmly upset point. “Because he knows this, and now you know it. And I would let you.” Even quieter. “I would let you, because I love you. So I’m jealous. I’m jealous to the point of not being able to sleep sometimes, because I can just feel you getting further away. And not further away from Cervera. Closer to Cervera. Closer to him.”

_Holy shit._ María just stared at him, mouth slightly open, and wondered what to say. How to say the thing she’d gone there to say in the first place. She didn’t figure it out before he seemed to realise what he’d just admitted and knelt on the floor in front of her.

“I’m sorry. I trust you. You know that? I trust you. I’m not trying to make this worse, I’m being honest. Like you asked.” Nothing. “Please say something. Be honest. Rip me apart, it’s ok.”

_It’s not ok._ “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you think like this. I can’t believe you have been thinking like this.”

“You said you wanted me to be honest.”

“Yeah! I didn’t realise that honest was…this. I…I just…think I need a few minutes.” She got up and looked at what that did to the look in his eyes. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She walked out the room and looked back once to see him crumple slightly and rest his head on the end of the bed, still knelt on the floor, growling slightly into the blanket, and then found Alex standing at the bottom of the stairs, same expression on his face as was on hers, and shrugged at him, not knowing what to say, too many conflicting emotions cohabiting at once. 

“You heard all that?”

He nodded and pulled her into a hug as she tried to bite her lip and conceal how upset she was. “I heard it. We’ll sort it out.”

“Hmm.”

“We’ll sort it out. I’ll go and talk to him, and we’ll sort it out.”

“No.” She pulled away and shook her head. “Don’t talk to him. Just…let us sort it out. If that’s ok.”

“That’s ok.” He ran a thumb under her eye to catch a tear and smiled sadly. “Don’t cry. He’s wrong, so it will be fine.”

*

She spent ten minutes in the garden trying to let it all process before she went back inside, finding neither brother had moved far, and walked back up to where Marc was now sat on the floor in front of the wardrobe, back against it, legs straight out over the floor in front of him like some staged Hollywood aftermath of having crumpled to the floor, which may have been what had happened. She offered him her hand and he took it, pulling him to his feet and then over to the bed to sit where they had been before.

“There’s something you need to know. To sort this out, we need to be honest, yes?”

Marc nodded and gratefully accepted the hand that snaked into his, thinking he was the one who’d really burnt the bridge. “Yeah.”

“Ok.” _Deep breath. Calm. Truth. Moving on, sorting things out. Not that I thought there wsa much wrong until Fabio saw-_ “Me and Alex have a secret. It’s a secret you’re not going to like.” The MotoGP rider visibly tensed and darkened, like he was bracing himself for a high velocity impact. 

He didn’t say anything and his grip on her hand got weaker. “Right.” _Here we go._ “Just say it and put me out of my misery. Tell me I’m right and we’ll switch bedrooms and it’s fine.”

“Stop it.” She glared at that and shook her head. “Just stop it. I’m not lying when I say I love you, so just stop it.”

Nothing.

“Ok. Here we go. I’m telling you this to help. Because you’re wrong, and we need to sort this out. I’ve not known how to tell you or if it would be an issue or anything but I’ve noticed you seem jealous, and I thought this would make it worse. Maybe it will, or maybe it will do the opposite if you hear me out. I don’t know.”

“JUST TELL ME.”

“Ok! Fine! I’m trying to explain so you don’t lose your mind!”

“Too late.”

“Huh. Maybe.” She gritted her teeth and tried to keep the tone as useful as possible. “The secret is that we lost our virginity to each other.”

Marc tensed up as he heard the words, then more as he processed what they were and what they were saying, then hung his head and let go of her hand, anger having replaced hurt or apprehension, anger so far gone that it seemed like seething calm. “I knew it.”

_No, no, no._ “No. You didn’t. We were younger and friends and it wasn’t an emotional thing. And it never will be. It’s the opposite of what you said – we did try it, slightly, and we’re not right. Me and you is right. That moment is over, because it was me and Alex first. It will never happen, because I love you.”

He listened, still braced slightly against what she might say, then stood up and slammed out the room, down the stairs, and towards the door, where he obviously found Alex. She could just about hear it.

_“Don’t get mad.”_

_“Get out of my way.”_

_“Don’t be like that with me, we’ve done nothing wrong.”_

_“WE! Always WE. Move, Alex. Get out of the way.”_

_“No. Calm down, and we’ll sort it out.”_

_“I’m trying to calm down, but I need to leave, NOW. Fucking MOVE.”_

There was a slight bang as Alex obviously, hopefully moved rather than was flattened, and Marc slammed the door open, followed by a louder bang when he slammed it shut.

_Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck._

She sat there and listened to the engine start in the garage and the car rev horrificly down the street before footsteps sounded on the stairs and Alex appeared. She looked up at him and shrugged, no attempt to hide the upset anymore.

“I told him.”

He nodded and walked into the room, sitting down next to her. “I guessed.”

“He didn’t like it.”

“I guessed that too.” He put his arm round her and kissed the top of her head as she leant into him. “But we did nothing wrong. It was years ago. There was no cheating, and we’re not going to do anything again.”

“You don’t have to convince me.” They stayed quiet for a few seconds before she took a deep breath and turned into him to hug him properly, having to ask that one last thing to make sure. “Are you trying to convince yourself?”

He pulled away slightly and got the eye contact that Marc had found so difficult, brushing some hair off her face. “No. You don’t love me like that, and I don’t love you like that. We are what we are. Good friends who shared something big. Now you’re with him, and I can’t wait to play with my nieces and nephews. In a long time, though.” He smiled slightly at her expression, something between adoration, hope and horror, and nodded. “I mean, like…10 years. Don’t worry.” She didn’t reply and his face fell slightly. “María? What? What?!”

“I thought I was pregnant. When you were in Texas.”

“Fuck!” Alex’s eyes widened and he pulled her back into a hug. “Well…maybe I shouldn’t have said that, then.”

“No, it’s ok.” She pulled them down onto the bed so they were lying on it and hung on a bit tighter. “That’s ok now. Thank you. For being here.”

“That’s ok.” He shuffled them a bit further up and pulled her head onto his chest. “He’ll be back in a while, he’ll be calmer, and then hopefully I can give you both a hug and leave you to sort it out.”

“Always the optimist.”

“It’s a family trait.”

She poked him slightly in the side and sighed. 

“It was.”


	6. Foregone Conclusion/Repsol Beer Rules

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one...need to post to clear me to write more... which I'm doing now ... ;)
> 
> There is not meant to be an undertone of Dani/Marc, so if I have accidentally not avoided it...please ignore it? ;) Although I do miss 'em and they'll return in something, soon...like an adorably powerful but short double Avenger :D
> 
> Enjoy!!

“I don’t BELIEVE IT.”

He slammed through the door into the back room of the office and threw his keys on the table.

“I DO NOT FUCKING BELIEVE IT.”

Everyone turned to look at him, his arrival in no way scheduled, before Santi raised his eyebrows. “Hello. What happened?”

“Sorry. Hi. Hello everybody. Hope you’re all well. My life is fucked.”

Santi looked at the few people there, all of whom who probably shouldn’t be within earshot, and they wisely filed out. He then looked back at his rider, now sat in a chair near him, and sighed. “Ok. You’re going to have to explain. And calm down.”

“When I explain you’ll understand why I can’t calm down. Are you busy?”

“No more than usual. Is it important? Dani’s coming down to meet Alberto in a bit, so…maybe don’t take too long…”

Marc’s face at ‘Dani’ visibly lightened, followed by an almost complete reversal at ‘Alberto’. “Urgh. Right. Well…you don’t know anything.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t be sarcastic, I mean you literally know none of the backstory. But fuck it. I trust you.”

“Thank you…?”

Marc ignored him and ploughed on. “María lives with me. In Cervera. She’s my girlfriend. Serious girlfriend.”

“María…? Who?!”

“María! ESTRELLA GALICIA MARÍA. MARÍA ‘we got stuck in Jerez and spent the night in bed together’ MARÍA. Herrera.”

Santi’s face exploded and imploded all at once. “What?!”

“Yeah. Backstory part one: I’m in love with María.”

“Right…” The older man looked flustered, shocked and happy. “Why is it a secret?”

“Because she doesn’t want to tell people because she thinks people will think I’m helping her out and she’s not earning it for herself.”

“Oh.” He nodded and shrugged. “That makes sense, I guess.”

“DOES IT?!”

“Yeah…”

“Ok, fine. Well…she wants to move out for a while because Quartararo found out and we have to pretend it’s not happening for a while. Ok…that hurts, maybe I can live with it. But then she’s always with Alex. When I’m not there, he is. Not on race weekends but the rest of the time, he’s there. And they get on so well. And I was terrified that something would happen, that there was something more between them more than just friendship and I didn’t know – well, I don’t know what to do about it because I wouldn’t be able to change it because you love who you love. This almost happened before. What if she chose the wrong one and she realizes that and I have to watch them be together? Can I deal with that? I would have to. And I told her all this and I let everything out – all these things that I didn’t even know I was so scared of before suddenly today it all kind of burst and I said it all and then…” He trailed off, anger being replaced by hurt panic, and stared down at his lap as he tried not to give in to the sudden want to cry his eyes out. “And…what does she tell me? She says I don’t have to worry, because they lost their virginity to each other and they never worked.”

Santi sat there and stared. _Fucking hell. How do I even begin to respond to that?!_ He was wondering why he was the chosen confidante before realizing the usual two were the two who were the problem. “Fuck.”

“Exactly.” The suspended reality of the silence suddenly broke and Marc started pawing at his eyes trying desperately to stop himself crying, fully. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.”

“Don’t cry.”

The HRC rider looked away and shrugged, not really able to decide for himself, reaction out of his control. “But I love her and I don’t know what to do.”

“Ok.” _Just stay calm and wise and help him how he helped you in Phillip Island._ He realised that was part of the shock – Marc never, ever exploded like this. Not for longer than a minute, tops. He was the one who made it all seem a climbable mountain, always. _Maybe that’s true of everything except love. Or her. Maybe it’s one of those stormy, fiery situations where fighting is a way of showing you care._ He studied him a second longer and tracked a full, wet tear as it streaked down his rider’s cheek. _Or maybe this is so serious that it requires this amount of reaction._ He got out of his chair and walked round to him and pulled him into a hug, never having done that before except when they’d won and finding it a strange experience, but not a negative one. “Let’s just calm down.” He patted him on the back, determined to keep it manly, and then pulled away and sat down again, opposite. Marc rubbed his eyes and didn’t look at him as he spoke. “It sounds like one of those moments where something happened in the past that shouldn’t be allowed to ruin the present, or the future. I don’t know anything about you and her, obviously, but I know about you and Alex and I know you’d trust him with anything and that he’d never steal her, or try.”

“I know. But it’s not a case of casual, deceitful cheating. It’s not about stealing. I’m worried that they fit, better than me and María do.”

“So you’re worried you and María aren’t right?”

“No! I’m worried she thinks that or would. I love her. I’m serious. I mean…she thought she was pregnant – while I was in Texas – she’s not…but she thought she was. And I panicked a bit, yeah. But mainly it just made me imagine how amazing that would be in the future. I’m dead, dead serious about her and I’ve never felt anything like it before. But I’m jealous. I’m so, so jealous of how much time they spend together and how well they get on. And now this. Everything I was trying to ignore and I used to think I knew was crazy is suddenly like a foregone conclusion.”

There was a long pause as Marc sniffed and femininely tried to compose himself and Santi stared, before finally the older man spoke. “You want me to be honest?”

“Always.”

“I think there’s way more to this than Alex and María. I think it must be strange and uncomfortable to find out what you did today, but it should only be that. It shouldn’t be this. This is insane. I’ve never seen you like this and it seems like the problem isn’t them, it’s you.”

“Great. So helpful.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I. Yeah, I probably sound crazy. But what can I do? I mean, literally, what can I do? I get back there as soon as I can every time I can, because I hate being away from her. But I’m already at 100% and I feel like she’s just like…a ghost. Since the season started. Before, with testing, it worked ok, we just missed each other. But now, when the circus is back is full swing, it’s like all the winter was a dream and it’ll never come back.”

“And Alex is there more.”

“He is.”

“So…could he be there less?” _It seems we’re ignoring my plea for psychological help on your behalf, then._

“That’s not fair though, is it?”

“Why? Is this fair on you?”

“No. It’s not. But it’s not fair on me because she won’t give me that bit extra faith and commitment and go public, is how I feel. It wouldn’t be fair on him or her to say anything like that, as in ‘spend less time together’, when they’re friends and they want to spend time together. Plus, she lives in a small town in Catalunya, alone a lot of the time, because of me. The me I expected to be is grateful he’s there.”

“Ok. I see what you mean. But you said she was going to move out for a while?”

“She wants to.” Marc nodded at him and then sighed and stared at the ceiling. “God, I was even jealous of Álvaro before. His relationship with her. Then I got to know her and we became a thing and that disappeared because I realised how secure we were. Why did it come back, but about Alex? Why is it so bad? I mean, sometimes I literally can’t sleep because I’m thinking about them. I feel white hot, like complete panic, and I just grind my teeth together and wait for her to wake up and remind me how she feels when she looks at me. Because that I believe.”

“Right.” Santi echoed his sigh and nodded. “Jealous. You’re just jealous. I think that’s created all this other stuff you think is so plausible. But it isn’t, and I don’t see many options.”

“Neither do I. But I want her so badly I’m almost pathetic.”

“Well option 1: you convince her to go public.”

“Tried.”

“Ok…well option 2: you ask them to help you out by spending less time together.”

“Not fair.”

“And option 3: just deal with it, and stop making it worse by giving in to it.”

Marc nodded and turned as the door opened, smiling wearily at his teammate and feeling a little bit better as he got a beaming smile in return. He turned back to Santi and shrugged. “I was dealing with it, but then I had to explode.”

"Well that's my list of options."

"Hmm." Marc glowered at the floor and then looked up and tried to be more friendly as his teammate appeared in his line of sight. "Hi. Sorry, I'm having a crisis."

"I gathered." The older rider put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, everything so changed between Aragon and the point they were at now that it didn't even seem friendly, to them. Santi tried to hide his smirk as Dani continued. "Alberto cancelled on me. Broke down near Lleida...so I'm here for no reason. Beer?"

Marc hauled himself out the chair and nodded. "Beer."

Santi smriked again. _If Dani was taller and you weren't rivals, I would think you were brothers, off track._ "So my options are ruled out?"

Marc shook his head and smiled as best he could. "Your options are never ruled out."

He followed his teammate out the door and they disappeared into conversation as Santi watched them go.

_Dani will help._ Marc tried to keep the small talk going until they were sat in a booth at the bar, the one only they knew they went to a little too often to talk and pretend they were normal civilians. An agreement had been reached with the owner, after Aragon, when Marc had dragged Dani there to sort it out. Which they had. _Dani will help._

"Ok, I'm ready." The older rider put his phone on silent and put it in the middle of the table. "Normal Repsol beer rules: 10 minutes, no interruptions. Go."

Marc nodded and took a preparatory swig of beer.

"Don't tell anybod-"

"Repsol beer rules."

"Ok. Good. Right...so...I'm in a serious relationship with Maria Herrera..."

His teammate's mouth dropped open in happy shock, and Marc enjoyed it until he realised a) he shouldn't be telling him and b) he wouldn't be able to enjoy similar reactions for a long time.

"Yeah. Marc and Maria. Perfect. Until..." He launched into it and Dani's jaw got further towards the floor, until Repsol beer rules didn't apply anymore and it was just two friends forgetting they rode motorbikes for a living and trying to sort out a problem.

_Dani is already helping._


	7. Two Guesses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...sorry it's been a while, I've been away a lot!
> 
> Hope you enjoy...?? If that's possible when I'm sending the story this way...! ;) :/

Dani did help, a lot. Marc wasn’t really sure why his teammate was the one who could always unravel everything into sense, but he could. By rights, it should be Alex. And Alex was the one who was scarily psychic with a lot of things, but he was also a couple of years younger and a couple of steps behind on some things. Like this. Dani, quite a few years older, was a lot of steps ahead.

“So…Santi’s options are quite good. That’s what I think, for a start.”

“I was worried you’d say that.” The words echoed to the bottom of the near-empty glass as Marc tried to drink and talk at the same time. “But I don’t know what to do.”

“You know the first thing I’m going to say.”

“Yup.” The younger rider put the glass back down a bit too heavily and winced. “I need to go home.”

“You do. At least…see how it goes, who says what…how you feel then…”

“Well I can’t drive now.” The World Champion motioned to the long-ish line of empty glasses in front of him and sighed. “I didn’t think that through.”

Dani raised an eyebrow and smiled at him as he finished his water. He’d had one beer, a long time ago by this point. “Classic Marc Marquez.” Marc glared at him and the Sabadell rider grinned unapologetically. “I’ll drive you if you want.”

“Would you actually?”

“Yeah. Going back that way anyway…if that invite still stands?”

“Oh yeah!” Marc smiled and nodded. “Yes! Shit! I forgot…tomorrow, right? Well…now you know everything about my life…why don’t you just stay at our house?”

The older rider studied him for a second before nodding. “When you say ‘our house’…?”

“Mine and María’s.”

“Is that a good idea? Now?”

“Look.” He tried to level with him and lean in slightly, but was a little too tipsy to make it seem confidential, coming off more leery. “It’s a big house with two people in it. But also, we have a studio in the bottom of the garden. So if we’re arguing or crying…” He wiggled his eyebrows, “…or having copious amounts of make-up sex, you’ll still be in peace. Plus then tomorrow we only have to fetch Tito and it’ll be easier.”

Dani weighed it up and then nodded. “Ok.”

_Allies. Who remind me I’m not crazy._ “Good.”

*

They walked in the door to a silent house. María and Alex hadn’t moved, because they’d fallen asleep. The inevitable moment got closer and closer as Marc left Dani in the kitchen getting a coffee and started the walk upstairs, imagining they’d gone out. He got to the door of the bedroom, which was closed, then dropped his phone on the floor and bent to pick it up, the noise enough to have woken his brother on the other side of the door. Alex realised it looked bad a split second before the door opened and Marc’s eyes met his, a flick-book of different emotions racing through them until he settled on complete rage. The phone dropped back onto the floor as Alex prodded María and sat up, the guilt on his face only there as a gut reaction; the reality was completely clean.

“We fell asleep, she was ups-“

“Get out.” Marc was completely still, edge in his voice that had never been directed at his brother before. "Get out."

“It was just a hug, we’re friends, come on…I know it’s not good timing b-“

“GET OUT. NOW.” Marc kicked his phone across the carpet and ran a hand through his hair, all of the calm from the bar gone, replaced by something much worse than before. “Just go. Now.”

Alex was on his feet and nodding, looking between his friend and his brother, who were staring at each other. “I will. Calm down. Stop being so fucking JEALOUS. Of nothing! You have her, you know?”

“Just GO!"

“Pff. I’m going. I’ll see you tomorrow. Well, hopefully not.” The younger brother’s temper snapped half way between bed and door, the look on Marc’s face not helping, the look on María’s not helping either. “Hopefully I’ll see my brother tomorrow, not this fucking excuse for one.”

*

Alex slammed down the stairs and skidded to a complete halt as he saw Dani. He was stood in the kitchen holding a tiny espresso cup, blowing on it, eyes wide and conveying all the ‘eek’ that Alex could already feel.

“Oh. Hi.”

The older Repsol Honda rider smiled at him, slightly sadly, slightly awkwardly, but definitely warmly. “Hi. Sorry…”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Just…bad timing. Which I knew it was…thought I might be able to help somehow.”

Alex felt his eyes widen. “You know?!”

“About María? Yeah. Well…about everything. We talk now. Properly. He’s an asshole on the track…” The Honda rider smiled knowingly and shrugged. “But he’s a great person off it.”

“Oh. Right…well, usually. Usually he’s the glue, that guy that everyone feels the absence of when he leaves. But at the moment he’s being a complete bastard.”

“Hmm.” Dani nodded and shrugged. “He’s jealous. Did he, uh…what just happened? Why is he throwing you out?”

Alex went slightly red and bit his lip. “You know _everything_ …?”

“Yup.”

“Right. Well…I was giving María a hug and we fell asleep. She wasn’t sleeping well ‘cause of the stress at the moment, I got back really late last night…we were tired, and we fell asleep. Didn’t look good…but it doesn’t mean anything-“

“Hey, you don’t have to defend yourself to me. I’m not on anyone’s side.”

“Well…you kind of are. Since you don’t know ‘us’…”

“Well, maybe. I’ll help him out if I can…but I’m impartial.”

“Ok.” Alex yawned and nodded. “So…yeah. In the interest of impartiality, can you try and make him stop being a dick?”

“I’ll try…”

“Thank you.” The younger rider nodded purposefully and made his way back to the door. “Right, I’ve been thrown out. Have fun with this. See you tomorrow. Maybe. In fact…I don’t know. Maybe not. But…yeah. Bye.”

“Bye.” Dani watched him go and leant back on the counter, looking round at the house for the first time, properly. Everything was very tidy, not much to show whose it was except for a couple of photos framed on the walls; María’s victory in Aragón, Marc, Dani and Jorge on the podium in Valencia. A picture of Alex battling Alex Rins in Motegi, that great moment when they’d been arguing at high speed. Other than that, it could have been anyone’s house. Cushions on the sofa. Coffee machine obviously bought by someone on a good wage. Couple of broken Honda clutch levers on the kitchen worktop. _Neutral. Obviously lived in by someone female, though. Too nice._ He smiled to himself briefly and took another sip of espresso as the voices from upstairs went from murmuring back to shouting, Dani frowning again as he listened.

_“No, YOU don’t get it. You either trust me and believe me when I say I love you, or you don’t.”_

_“WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND WHY I DON’T LIKE COMING HOME TO FIND YOU CURLED UP WITH MY BROTHER?!”_

_“IT’S NOT, AND I’M SORRY! But this whole thing is more than just one moment, you’re just b-“_

_“YEAH, it is more than ONCE. It’s ALL THE TIME. It’s like I’m a weekend fuck and he gets everything else!”_

_“Don’t fucking interrupt me, and TAKE THAT BACK. NOW.”_

_“No.”_

_“I’m serious. You take that back or I’m moving out now. Now.”_

_“That’s what it’s like!”_

_“MAYBE. Maybe in some ways. But I LOVE YOU. You understand how frustrating this is?! I’m fucking YELLING that I LOVE YOU in your face and you’re still not LISTENING! Take it BACK.”_

_“No.”_

_“I’m warning you.”_

_“Don’t try that with me.”_

_“Try what?”_

_“That voice. That ordering me around voice.”_

_“Oh, great. I have a ‘voice’ do I? What is it, half frustration, half pleading? Like me, all the time?”_

_“Yeah. Exactly.”_

_“Fuck you, Marc. FUCK YOU. Thank God I wasn’t pregnant. THANK GOD.”_

Dani took a sharp intake of breath at that, _fuck, he left that out_ , and cringed as a door slammed and footsteps started barrelling down the stairs towards him; obviously María on her way out. He waited, still cringing as he waited for her to see him, and let that tick through his mind. _Pregnant. Woah._ She appeared across the room and froze as she saw him, tears streaming and one hand trying to wipe them away, other hand holding a bag. _She’s serious. She’s going._

“Hi. Sorry to intrude.”

She coughed and obviously tried to find what to say. “No, y-you’re not intruding. I’m going, anyway.”

He nodded and frowned slightly as he tried to figure out whether he was allowed to ask. “Where?”

“The worst place I can go. Which is the only place I can go. He’s left the car.”

“Alex.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “A friend. Who cares.”

“Hey, come on. Marc cares. He cares so much he’s lost his mind.”

“Hmm.” She locked eyes with him and shrugged, helpless, eyes welling up again. “Well I hope it comes back. I hope Marc comes back. The real one. Bye.”

_Bye._

He waited a few seconds after she’d gone until the faint but definite sound of Marc crying started to filter down the stairs.

_Great._ He sighed, put the now empty cup down, and followed the noise upstairs. _What am I going to say?!_ He got to the top and could see the outline of his teammate sat on the floor, back leaning against the end of the bed. _Maybe that doesn’t matter, and it’s just good that someone’s here._ He got closer and leant on the doorframe.

“We’ll sort it out. I’m going to cook. Ok?”

Marc looked up and shrugged at him, completely unable to deal with anything else.

“Ok. Pasta. Be downstairs in 20 minutes. Calm down.”

The younger rider nodded, happy someone was taking control of something pro-active, and watched him go back downstairs.

_Calm down._

He picked his phone up from where he’d kicked it and stared down at it. _Thank God I wasn’t pregnant._ That’s all his brain could really remember; that and the look on Alex's face. _Thank God I wasn’t pregnant._

He sighed and sniffed, trying to get some control back.

_And now two guesses where I’ve sent her running to._

_Thank God I wasn't pregnant._

_I don't agree._


	8. I'm Your Team/3 or 4...Four.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and everything!! :D
> 
> Doing pretty well on updating atm...although I know other stuff is suffering...my head is in Cervera. ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

She knocked on the door and waited a few moments, wondering if it would be Alex who answered or if that mattered, wondering if he would be expecting it or think it was as stupid as it obviously was.

_But it could only be stupid if there was something there, and there isn’t._

Eventually the door opened and Roser looked at her, wearily, before smiling.

“Oh. Hi! I thought it was going to be another fan. Too many this month.”

María smiled and shook her head, trying to not immediately burst into tears. The mood was obviously obvious, especially for a mother. 

“What’s wrong?” The older woman’s face fell as she saw her and she pulled her into a hug and into the house in one smooth movement. “Come in.”

María followed her through into the house and took a seat at the table as a glass of water was put in front of her. She could hear Marc and Alex’s parents muttering to each other in the kitchen and tried to ignore it, wondering if Alex had actually gone back there at all. _Probably in his room. Angry._ She tried to smile as Roser came back in and sat down opposite her.

“Did something happen? Where’s Marc?”

She coughed and shrugged slightly as she took a sip. “Marc’s at home. Did Alex come back here?”

Roser nodded and frowned, starting to realise María was there because of Marc, rather than because he wasn’t there. “Oh. Ok. Yes, he did. He wasn’t happy either. What’s he done now?”

María could tell that the ‘he’ was most definitely referring to the older sibling, and smiled slightly despite herself. _Reputation._ “He’s jealous. And being insane.”

“Oh. Do you want to talk about it? We’re here for you, you know that. If he’s being an idiot we’ll be as impartial as possible!”

The EG 0,0 rider tried to smile at the attempt at lightening the mood and blubbed slightly instead. “Thank you. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise. What’s wrong?”

“He’s jealous. I said that already. But…” She trailed off and shrugged, looking down into the glass before meeting the older woman’s eyes again. “But he’s jealous of _Alex._ ”

“Oh.” Roser’s face filled with conflict. “Oh dear.”

*

Dani studied him as he ate. He had calmed down, and it was _incredibly_ weird to be sat across from him in his house watching him eat food that he’d cooked for him. But it was ok. The kid was obviously in pain, and after having seen the difference between ‘Track Marc’, when he was in his element, and ‘out of his comfort zone Marc’, when he absolutely wasn’t, Dani couldn’t abandon that. It felt too mean. He wasn’t good at things that didn’t involve gas or grinning at a camera. _Although I’m not sure how I accidentally became his dad. Or older brother. Or best friend. Or weird, hopefully cool uncle._

“Is it ok?”

“It’s nice. Thank you. For everything.”

“No problem.”

A few more seconds of silence before Dani tried to cross the first bridge. “I heard most of what you said. You left out the pregnancy scare.”

“I did.” Marc nodded and shrugged. “Didn’t want to think about it.”

“Ok. And they were asleep on your bed.”

“Yeah. Clothed.” He added that detail a bit too fast and snapped his eyes back up to meet his teammate’s. “Nothing was going on.”

 _Interesting. Defending them._ Dani studied him for a second and nodded. “Right. I spoke to Alex. He said that too. So if you know that, how did all this happen?”

Marc sighed and leant his forehead on the table where his plate had been a few moments before. “Because I know I’m jealous and paranoid and being insane. And I know I shouldn’t have drunk anything. And I know I made it worse.”

 _Right._ “Ok. Well that’s Step 1, I guess. You were the one mostly in the wrong, in this case.”

Marc seemed to wince slightly and then propped his head on his hands and nodded in defeat. “I was. You see now...I know that. I'm talking to you and the idea of them seems stupid.”

 _Hmm._ “So next is Step 2.”

“What?”

Dani sighed and nodded at him. _You’ll learn._ “Can I give you some advice? Non-María related advice?”

The younger rider nodded and shrugged as if to say _be my guest_. “Yeah. Of course. I might not-“

“I know.” Dani held up a finger and smiled at him. “If you don’t like it, you’ll ignore it. Learnt that one a while ago.” _Wow, he slightly smiled back._ “Ok…advice. Don’t sit around being upset. Don’t dwell on it. I know you’ve probably not been in a situation like this before, but it’s easy to at least have an action plan. You figure out each bit of the problem, then you work through it. Like a race weekend. You’re fast and beat us on the track, but everything you learn there can be used here. A race weekend is like an entire lifetime in 3 or 4 days. Treat this the same. We’ve had…maybe not FP1. I’d say maybe this is just before Q2. You’ve made it into Q2 – but now there are big problems and you need to get yourself in a good position for the race – the future. So what do you do?”

“Sit down with the team and figure out where to start.”

“Exactly. So right now, it’s not your side of the garage that’s your team, it’s my side. Me. So let’s figure out Problem 1, and find a solution.”

Marc was looking at him across the table like he was Jesus, eyes suddenly not defeated at all, completely ready to start to try, at least. “You’re a good guy.”

The older rider felt himself go slightly red and then shrugged. “Maybe I’m just a normal guy, but you’ve never been in this situation before.”

“Hmm…”

 _Not convinced._ “Or maybe it’s because I’m older, and a rider, and I can see both sides of the problem. I mean…I know what it’s like to get your heart broken, but I also know what it’s like to live in a circus some of the time.”

“Maybe. Or maybe you’re just a good guy.”

“Well yeah!” Dani grinned and took their plates over to the sink. “I’m incredible!”

*

“He’s jealous of his brother. Why?”

 _How much should I say? Everything? Nothing?_ “It’s complicated. But it’s mostly because we spend a lot of time together, and he seems to have got it into his head that we’re going to fall in love with each other.”

“Right…” The sounds of the other brother moving around upstairs caught Roser’s attention before she could really take that in and she looked at the ceiling. “Oh. He’s back too…”

“He got thrown out. I at least left on my own.”

Her mouth made a little ‘o’ and the CEV rider could see all the questions about that being thought through. “Right…God. I think you’d better start from the start!”

María nodded and sighed. “I’ll try. But some stuff isn’t mine to tell.”

“I understand. Marc’s grown up now, we’re not trying to get involved in things that don’t concern us.”

“No…” Deep breath. “Not Marc’s stuff. Alex’s. Mine and Alex’s.”

The wariness came back. “Right…”

“Ok.” _Deep breath._ “When he was away in Texas I thought I was pregnant…”

Roser went white and her eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything.

“I’m not, and I wasn’t. So that was the first thing. Nobody knows about that except you, and Marc. And Alex, now. I told him. Oh and maybe Dani. We were yelling.”

“Dani..?”

“Dani Pedrosa!”

“What?!”

“Oh…yeah! He’s at my house right now. Marc invited him up to Rufea and he accepted. Hopefully he’s talking some sense into him.”

 _Dani Pedrosa. Right. How am I so out of so many loops?!_ “Ok. I hope so too.”

María felt the relief again at being treated like a member of the family rather than ‘someone who had upset Marc’ and smiled at the older woman, finding it returned just as warmly. “So that’s the first thing. Then…” _Where now?_ “Ok, so I don’t want anyone to know about me and Marc, because of my career.”

“I know. I think that’s a good idea, for a while.”

“Well he disagrees. And Fabio, my teammate, found out. He saw my phone. So I said to Marc, ‘I’m going to move out for a while’, just to play it down and stop him really believing it until we’re ready to go public. He didn’t like that. I mean, he doesn’t like it anyway. But moving out? Not at all. And believe me, I don’t want to. It can get boring when he’s away but the feeling when he comes back and we have our own place…”

“I know.” Roser smiled knowingly. “I remember.”

“Exactly! So I wouldn’t give that up if I wasn’t serious. Never mind the fact that I’d miss him like hell. But that’s what I was going to do, anyway…and he said he’s terrified I wouldn’t come back. How did he put it? I think ‘It’s like you’re getting closer to Cervera, and closer to him, but further away from me.’”

She sighed and nodded, having heard it before at some point. “He’s paranoid.”

“He is.”

“Why?”

“Because I spend so much time with Alex. That’s who the ‘him’ was. He said it was like Alex is living his life for him and has everything that he should have, here. Because he’s here more often…I spend a lot of time with him. He said he feels like he’s a weekend fuck and Alex gets everything else.”

Roser’s eyes widened slightly at the words, but it wasn’t too far, it was just surprising to imagine Marc, _baby Marc_ saying or thinking that. “Oh God. It’s bad, then?”

“It’s bad. But what can I do? He wants me to go public, which I don’t want to do, and I want him to believe me when I tell him I love him. He was crazy! The things he was saying! Like he could imagine me and Alex falling for each other and he would let us go because he loves us. Like it’s a foregone conclusion. I mean, I understand it in a way because they are so similar, but the differences are what make them who they are. Alex is my friend, Marc is who I love. That’s not going to change just because one of them has a Red Bull event in Austin and the other hasn’t.”

They both looked up as footsteps came down the stairs and Alex appeared in the doorway, searching for Roser and then seeing María and stopping. “What’s going on? Are you ok?”

“I’m ok.”

“He threw _you_ out as well?!”

“No.” She shook her head and sighed. “I left, for the same reason as he did earlier.”

“Oh.” The younger brother walked over to her and put an arm round her shoulders to squeeze before sitting down next to her, facing his mother. “So you’re talking about how to make him back into Marc, right?”

Roser smiled sadly at him and nodded. “We are. How are you? Sounds like he’s very jealous.”

Alex nodded and looked away slightly, not really wanting to talk about himself or any of that. “I’ll be ok.”

 _Ok…_ “Good. María was just telling me everything.”

The Moto3 rider turned to her and raised his eyebrows. “Everything?”

María shook her head. “No. I said, there are some things that aren’t just mine to tell.”

“Ok.” Alex seemed to think about it for a second before looking between them. “Well, don’t leave it out on my account. She knows most of it anyway! They teased me for days.” He smiled and shrugged, slightly red. “She just doesn’t know it was you.”

Roser seemed to be cottoning on, face somewhere between gleeful curiosity and abject horror. “Don’t tell me…”

Alex shrugged and nodded, looking at María. “Yeah, I think you guessed.”

“Right.” The older woman sat back in her chair and sighed. “Well this is a big fucking mess. That’s what he found out today?”

María nodded and cringed at the truth being out. “I told him. Because I didn’t want secrets, but I also thought that, after the explosion, it might make it better.”

“Make it better?!”

“Yeah! Because he knows now that we kind of tried it, and we didn’t fit.”

Roser sighed and shook her head. “That was a really bad idea.” She looked at her younger son and raised her eyebrows. “So that’s why he threw you out.”

“No.” Alex coughed and moved nervously in his seat. “He threw me out because after he’d found that out, he left for a while, obviously went and talked to Dani, brought Dani back to the house and found us in bed. Asleep. Fully clothed. Because I was giving her a hug.”

“Oh dear.”

“I know. But there is _nothing_ to this. We’re good friends. That’s it.”

“Except for the one time you slept together.”

Alex fidgeted again. “Well…the, er…three or four times.” Cough. “Four.”

Roser’s eyes widened again. “Bet he doesn’t know that, does he?”

The two younger riders shook their heads.

“No.”

“Well…right.” She took a deep breath and looked at them both. “It sounds fairly simple: you have to convince him to stop being jealous. And then, you and Marc,“ she looked at María, “need to figure out if you can find a compromise on this whole moving out/going public situation.”

“I know.”

“Ok, good. First, I’m going to make food. You two think about what’s going to happen now.”

They nodded and looked at each other before Alex said one more thing.

“Also, though…he has to apologise.”

Roser sighed again and stopped in the doorway. “Was he really that bad?”

“Yes.” María nodded and held her eye contact. “I think so.”


	9. I Knew We Had Something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if there are errors; normally I sit down, write, post...but this one's been interrupted a few times with various happenings in my life! ;) :/
> 
> After the storm, must come the calm...? At least a bit..? ;)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading...and I'm sure if you also write on here you know how ridiculously amazing it is to see people read/comment/kudos...genuinely very, very appreciated!! <3

“So, today…you think you were in the wrong…?”

The conversation was now really underway, Dani sat in an armchair and Marc close on the sofa, sprawled out with one hand on his stomach, which was now very full, face up. Dani was going for ‘let him talk and give him some nudges’. _Like a therapist._

“Today, yeah. Mostly. Because nothing has happened between them…I mean…since that moment. While me and María have been together, nothing has happened. I know that. But I’m so, so jealous…and I know in some ways that’s my fault, but…ok, no. Let’s leave that for a second. Today, I shouldn’t have exploded, because she told me the truth. I shouldn’t have gone drinking with you. And when we came back…” He sighed and rubbed his eyes, upset at the memory. “Should they have been there? No. But should I have treated Alex like that? No. Shouldn’t have thrown him out. Not _Alex._ ”

“And María?”

“María…I don’t know. I…It’s difficult. I was mean, I know that. But so was she. And it was an argument, between two people, you know? It wasn’t like Alex…I made a mistake.”

“I think you did, but I can understand why.”

“Will he?”

“Yeah.”

“I hope so.”

“He will.” Dani took another sip of wine and nodded at him. “If you can deal with all your issues, Alex will be fine.”

“Great. Makes it sound like I’m a real disaster.”

“You know I don’t mean that. I mean, Alex has made a couple of small mistakes. He should probably take a step back, but he just wants you and María to be ok.”

“Ok. Good.”

Dani marvelled at how quickly his teammate had started accepting what he said. _He trusts me. No wariness, no guard…it’s weird. But good._ “So…what’s the worst thing with María? The fact she won’t go public?”

“Yeah.”

_I don’t believe you._ “Really?”

“Er, yeah…?”

“Don’t lie.”

The younger HRC rider sighed and closed his eyes. “Ok, what she said about being pregnant. I know we’re young. I don’t want kids right now. Definitely not, and neither does she. But the way she said it…like us creating a new life was something terrible. Like me being a dad was a joke.”

“I know, I could tell that hurt.”

“To be honest…” His voice cracked slightly and he tried to take a few deep breaths and not start crying about it again. And failed. “It’s killing me. It’s killing me because that’s my _dream_. You understand?” He looked up at Dani and appreciated the understanding nod in return. “I wanted my three titles. I have that. I want more. I’ll try my best. But the other thing I want more than anything is kids. And I want it with her. Can you imagine how amazing that would be? I mean, they’d laugh way too much and be way too handsome…but…” The humour fizzled out and he shrugged helplessly. “But I’d already thought about that. Which is terrifying.” He took another breath and tried to stay calm. “I mean, when she said it I was shocked and I panicked, because now is too soon. But…now is always moving forward. And it goes quickly. It’s like she didn’t think I would ever be right for that.”

_That it does._ Dani nodded and looked back at him, trying to weigh it up. _Grown up a bit too fast too soon this year._ “It does go quickly. But she doesn’t mean that. You know that. You know she said it because it would hurt.”

“I know.” He sighed and nodded. “Why do we do that?”

Dani shrugged back at him and bit his lip slightly. “Because we’re trying to defend ourselves.”

Marc mulled it over for a few seconds then locked eyes with his teammate again. “So…still my fault?”

The older rider gave him a wry smile and shrugged. “No. Just…trying to make sure you understand her point of view. Like hopefully someone is saying to her right now.”

“Alex.”

“Maybe. Maybe that’s the whole point: he will be doing that. Nothing else.”

“I hope so.”

*

“Did we say too much?”

They were now the only two still up, sat at opposite ends of the sofa watching some Liga highlights, or at least, that was what was on the TV in the background. María stole a glance at him while she waited for the response.

“No. I don’t mind. They’d find out eventually, they always do.” Alex turned to grin at her and shrugged. “But about the apology…you’re going to apologise too?”

“I already did, for today. For how he found us. Properly, before we started yelling. And I know I was harsh in some things after that, but I can’t deal with it. Seriously, it has to stop or I’m done. You have to make the best of a situation, you can’t just scream until you get what you want.”

_Like the fact that Fabio knows? Like not going public?_ “Serious?”

“Serious. It would break my heart and I’d probably just spend 10 years waiting for us to try again…but I love him. And he won’t believe me.”

“Ok…”

“Actually no, that’s a good point. Obviously, it’s been a bit fucked up for a while, at least…in his head. But it’s only after we said ‘I love you’ that he went crazy.”

“Really?” Alex frowned and shrugged. “That’s weird. When was that?”

“Really recently. But I’ve been feeling it for ages.”

“He has.” Alex smiled at her and nodded. “After that first night in Jerez, he came back here and sat where you are and stared at the TV for about 40 minutes, not watching anything, then started grinning at me. I asked him what he was grinning at, and he said ‘I think I’m going to fall in love with María.”

“Really?” She felt her chest constrict slightly and leant back. “I had that too. Not ‘I love you’, not straight away, but just…knowing. That we had something. You know?”

Alex shrugged and shook his head, face slightly sad but not very serious. “No. No idea. Never had it.”

The younger rider smiled back and shrugged. “You will.”

“Hope so. One day. Although, to be honest…doesn’t seem that fun!”

María glared good-naturedly and smacked him on the leg. “You say that, but you don’t know how we broke that shower screen, do you?” She stuck out her tongue at the slightly red face looking back at her and shrugged. “I’m not ashamed.”

“I am.” Alex smiled and got to his feet. “Bed? You’re sleeping in Marc’s room? Or is that too Marc-y for you?”

She accepted to hand offered to pull her up and joined him walking up the stairs. “Not too Marc-y. As long as he’s not in it.”

*

The day in Rufea went off without much pizzazz. Marc was fastest, him and Alex didn’t really talk much, Tito wasn’t there in the end and Dani found himself enjoying his temporary residence in his homeland a lot more than he’d expected. Marc had apologised to Alex, which had been accepted, but the mood wasn’t great and the older brother was being too nice to the younger in an attempt to mend it, which was putting Alex off since it was too out of character – Marc was (usually) a fantastic brother, but never in a sickly sweet way. Always a bit of sarcasm or teasing, always a bit of rivalry; healthy for them both. But not that day; that day Alex wasn’t really responding to most of the attempts going his way, and Dani could understand why. He had apologised to Marc too, but his mistakes were more from an oversight in ‘where the line was’, rather than anything purposeful like Marc’s throwing him out had been. So they had a good day of training, and an ok day of being human beings. Then they went back to the house, Alex did accept the invite to dinner, and they ate. María wasn’t mentioned, although Dani had asked Alex separately in private whether she was at his parents’ house still, and she was. 

“She wants him to apologise?”

Alex nodded. “I’m not sure if he will. Or if he should? I mean, they both probably should…”

Dani stared at him and nodded back, hint of a smile. “Oh. Ok…I agree.”

“Good!” Alex grinned and patted him on the back as he started walking back over towards his brother. “That’s our project then. I’ll try and get her to go back over, you try and make sure he’s calmed down enough by then?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The younger Marquez turned back and winked. “Well yeah; we always have a plan!”

*

Dani slept very well in the spare room after the day of dirt track. When he woke up, he’d forgotten where he was or why and had a slight moment of giggles at the strangeness – given what he’d almost vowed after Aragón, which was something similar to ‘I’ll never even smile at him again’ – the difference was huge. But it was almost impossible to ignore the fact that his teammate was a good guy. Still a bit wary on the track, but off it…everything was fine. Not fine. Good. Almost better than Casey, because Marc actually seemed to enjoy all the stuff they had to do, and that was infectious. Although, obviously, he hadn’t been enjoying being away. He got up, listened to hear if Marc was up, and deciding no, went downstairs to start trying to find breakfast. That failed, he read a magazine that he’d found on the table, aware it was still only 8.10am, and then stopped as he heard the front door open. María walked in, slightly sheepishly, although Dani’s face said more ‘this is awkward’, acutely aware he was sat in her house.

“Morning.”

“Hi.” She smiled and nodded at him before getting out the cereal from the one cupboard he hadn’t checked, noticing his face, giving him some of it and then sitting opposite him. “I’m back!” 

_And so is the reason he’s obviously mad about you._ The HRC rider smiled at the smiling, happy-ish, fiery woman who was now sat there, so different to the one the 2 days before. “Good. I tried my best, talking some sense into him…think last night especially…”

“Good.” She smiled knowingly and peered over the magazine to see what it was. “Urgh. Fabio. The root of all evil.” Another smile. “I’m joking. He’s perfectly nice…but you shouldn’t start playing politics when you’re 15. Right?”

“Right.”

“Wait until at least you’re old enough to be a wildcard. Pff.” She munched through some more cereal, Dani watching but trying not to be weird about it, and then put her bowl in the sink and walked over to the stairs. “He’s still asleep?”

“I think so. I slept in the spare room.” He went red and then smiled at that. “I mean…I slept _in the house_ not in the…whatever extra flat you have. And I didn’t hear him when I woke up.” _Not, ‘I don’t know because I wasn’t in the same bed.’_

Her face went from puzzled to realisation and then a full little fit of giggles hit her. “Ok. Thanks for clarifying.”

Dani coughed and feigned extreme embarrassment, reality less embarrassed and more amused. “No problem.”

She disappeared up the stairs and he contemplated not trying to listen in for a couple of tenths before giving up to the knowledge that he was absolutely going to do his best to try and hear. So he went to the bottom of the stairs and waited, for not very long.

*

“MORNING!”

She yelled it and threw the door open on a very sleepy Marc.

“WAKE UP, I’M BACK.”

“Uurrggghhh.” There was a groan from the bed before his head caught on to what was happening and popped up. “María! Urgh. I thought it was Dani being a dick.”

“Hello. No, it’s me.” She dropped some of the humour and sat next to him on the edge of the bed, grabbing his hand and planting a kiss on it. “This is stupid.”

“Yeah.” Marc’s voice sounded like sandpaper and he coughed into the covers before looking back up, eyes equidistant between hurt, relief and hope. “It is.”

“So I woke up today in your old bed, again. And it was weird, because you weren’t there. But it reminded me of the first time I ever stayed over, when we got back from that event and everyone else was asleep. Where was Alex?”

Marc’s face grimaced minutely at the name, which was the point of her saying it to some extent, to break the voodoo, and he shook his head. “Can’t remember.”

“Maybe he was testing. Wasn’t he? Was that the week when he and Alex Rins got the days wrong? And Emilio had to go to Cádiz to find them and they were in that ice cream shop…”

Marc laughed at the memory despite not really being sure what was going on. “I think maybe it was.”

“A smile.” She beamed down at him and then pushed him over the bed slightly to make enough room for her, settling herself with her head against his chest and feeling a massive wave of relief as his hand tangled in her hair and a kiss was planted on top of her head. _Progress._ “So, yeah…when we snuck in and nobody knew other than Alex. And we didn’t even do anything, we just got in your single bed all tangled up and you threw the sheets out in the dark because it was too warm, and they hit that tank cover and you woke everyone up.”

Marc laughed again and María felt her head move up and down with the movement. “Yeah. Sometimes they still make me apologise for that.”

“It _was_ loud.”

“It was. Good job we don’t live there anymore…” 

The tone was enough to make her grin like a Cheshire cat and she tilted her neck up to look at him. “It is. But, I’m saying this because you went to sleep almost straight away, and I couldn’t sleep. Not for bad reasons. I was just _too happy._ I couldn’t believe where I was or with who and how much you seemed to like me. And I remember watching the first few bits of sun starting to come through the window…but by that point I was stressed at not sleeping, and I just lay there angrily huffing thinking _how dare he make me love him so quickly when I have training to do and I need sleep._ I was so wound up by the time I accidentally woke you up that I remember just looking at you being all smiley and sleepy and almost just telling you to piss off because I loved you and it was annoying.”

Marc grinned and his eyes widened. “Fine! Well…pfff.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Fine!”

“So you were annoying me from then on, really.” _Please take my tone right._ He did. “And not much has changed. Still love you, still sometimes want to kill you. Always, always want to be with you. So I’m sorry. I already said that, I hope you remember. And I was all ready to sit over at your parents’ house fuming until you apologised, but there’s no point. You’re here for another 4 days, then you’re gone again.”

Marc stared at her for a few seconds before nodding. “I know. Sorry I have to go again.”

“It’s ok.”

“Hmm…not really.”

“That’s it?”

“No. Be patient.” He nudged her and took a deep breath. “One thing really hurt.”

“I know what you’re going to say.” She wound her fingers into his and sighed. “I’m sorry I said that.”

“You really know what I’m going to say?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like it sounded. And you can name the first one as long as you don’t call it Horatio or something awful.”

“Horatio is a cool name.”

“Horatio is not a cool name. But you will be an amazing dad, one day. Hopefully with me.”

“Hopefully?”

“Don’t push your luck. And, I even meant that as in ‘I hope _you_ stay with _me_ so…”

“Oh. Ok.” He took a deep breath and they seemed to get two inches lower on the mattress as Marc actually relaxed. “Well I am so, so sorry. I’m jealous. I’m really jealous, and I’m sorry. I know it’s ruining the time we do actually have together…and I’ll try harder. I trust you.”

_Wow._ “Ok. Good. Accepted. Now today, we’re not going to talk about the other stuff, right? Moving, public, none of that. Let’s take a break, and talk about it tomorrow.”

_Thought maybe you’d changed your mind._ “Ok.”

“Just ok?”

“It will never be more than ok.”

_Fair enough._ “Right. Ok, then. So, today…what do you want to do? Bearing in mind we seem to have a pet Pedrosa in the kitchen.”

Marc laughed at that and wrestled with the covers until they were both underneath them, the faintly fake, shiny exterior of forced happiness getting lost slightly as they both relaxed into a kiss and felt the grey clouds start to come back again, but accompanied by relaxed relief somehow, relief at being back where they should have been, regardless of how long it might last. Marc spoke first, after a couple of minutes, freeing himself long enough to form words.

“Should we go and have breakfast?”

“I already ate.” She grinned at him and pecked him on the cheek. “And I fed the Dani.”

“Well that’s a relief.” Marc grinned at her and pulled her in again. “So you loved me since then?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I loved you then too. And I still do.”

She smiled at him and ruffled his hair down into a more normal style. “Why didn’t we say that sooner?”

“Fear.”

“Or stupidity.”

“Both?”

“Both. But we should have. Maybe then you’d feel more secure…although we only said it recently…that’s when it all exploded…” She trailed off, wondering if he would take up the point, and relaxing back against him when he did.

“I think it made it all real, hearing you say it. And it made all the things in my head real at the same time.”

“Well only half of it’s real. The part where I love you.”

_But you still want to leave._


	10. Motera

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty short, sorry!

“Morning.” Marc grinned at María as he held the phone against his ear and swatted her arm away from trying to make him squeak into the mic. 

_“Morning?”_

“Could you maybe do us a massssive favour…?” He heard Dani sigh down the line and grinned again.

_“You’re calling me from upstairs. Really?!”_

“Yeeahhh…” Marc said the word slowly, imbued with as much ‘puppy dog eyes’ as he could. “We are.”

“WASN’T MY IDEA!” María leant into the phone and yelled it before Marc glared at her and tried to bite her nose.

_“Ok. I believe her. What do_ you _want?”_

“I would like a double espresso _and_ my girlfriend would like a cappuccino, skimmed milk. She’s in this too. Two sugars in the espresso, none in the cappuccino. And to eat, I would like toast. Bread is in the big barrel with the monkey on it.”

Another sigh echoed down the phone. _“I miss Casey.”_

“Hey! I gave you dirt track _and_ you stayed. Twice!”

_“And I gave you about 3000 euros worth of therapy…”_

“True.” Marc’s voice got quieter and he smiled at María again, more in genuine affection rather than just grinning. “That’s very true.”

_“Can you tell I’m smiling? I’m worried now, that sounded too serious.”_

“I couldn’t. I was a bit worried.”

_“Toast and coffees coming right up. And if I start a fire-“_

“Hang on.” Marc’s phone beeped at him and he checked what it was before carrying on. “Change of order. Two double espressos.”

_“For…?”_

“Guess.”

_“Alex.”_

“Yeah! You fit in well round here, I’m glad we hired you!”

_“Seriously pushing your luck now…”_

“Sorry. What were you going to say about the fire?”

_“Not much, just…if I start one, I’m holding you responsible.”_

“Not going to blame Alberto…?” Marc bit his lip and tried not to laugh. _That was harsh._

_“FUCK YOU!”_

The call ended abruptly and Marc panicked for a second before it beeped again.

Dani: _Be ready in 5 minutes. Xxx_

Dani: _Fuck_

Dani: _No kisses_

Dani: _Actually, kisses >>> xxxxxx six of them. Deep, meaningful kisses. For María. Don’t get jealous…_

Marc: _Jajaja ok :P can I pass them on? ;)_

Dani: _No._

Marc left it a couple of seconds before replying. 

Marc: _Too late._

*

“You’re my hero.” Marc sniffed the coffee smell in the air and grinned at his teammate as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing the cup from him and necking it straight down. “Thanks!”

“Apparently I used to be…”

“Yeah, you were.” The younger rider nodded and shrugged, not embarrassed at all. “But you knew that before, so…”

_Aww._ “Yeah. Sorry…but I did make you coffee, and breakfast.”

Marc was about to reply before the front door smashed open and they both visibly winced as Alex appeared. “Sorry. Did it again.”

“Yeah, I heard.” Marc glared at his brother then pulled him into a hug, Alex’s face over his shoulder looking at Dani, finding it weird but ultimately a nice gesture. “Morning!”

“Morning…” Alex rolled his eyes then wriggled. “Get off me now.”

“Ok.” Marc obliged and walked over to the bottom of the stairs. “Maríiiaaaaa!”

_“What?!”_

“Are you out the shower?”

_“Not been in, yet!”_

“Well, COFFEE IS READY and ALEX IS HERE!” Marc turned to the other two guys in the room and shrugged. “I swear, I don’t know what they do _before_ nevermind _during_ and _after_. I mean…we’ve showered together…” He noticed the faces and shrugged, slightly red but also slightly proud. “And she does the same as me, and she looks the same. She showers alone? It’s like an hour of fucking around and no difference.”

Dani stared at him and then started to smile, finding it one of those rare moments where he seemed to zoom out of the situation and see it from afar. _Some things make him so clueless._ “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah…?”

“Do you think hair just magically disappears off women? That her skin is smoother than your skin just because she’s female?”

Marc stopped and stared at him, as though he’d discovered penicillin, electricity and nuclear fission at the same time. “Oooohhh. Didn’t think about that.”

“Well, you would if she _didn’t_ do it.” Dani raised his eyebrows and smiled. “ _Believe me._ ”

“Urgh, ok! I believe you. Can we stop talking about it now?”

“We can. And never tell her you know. Make her think you think she was born perfect. Trust me.”

“I do.”

“Although maybe you shouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Track record: you have a beautiful _motera_ and I have…been sleeping in your spare room.”

“Ok, stop.” Alex stood up straighter from leaning against the countertop and shook his head. “If we’re playing that game…I live with my parents, I ride in Moto3, and I lost my virginity to the beautiful _motera_ who now lives with my brother.”

Dani took a little breath wondering whether it was a bad idea to have said that, or actually a good idea, before Marc looked at him sharply and then a smile cracked his face. _Good idea. Break the taboo._

“Yeah. She does.” Marc smiled and nodded, looking between each of them before turning back to the toast and starting to munch. “-nd –bout wht you said b-fore…”

Dani looked at Alex and found the same affectionate frustration on his face, but neither of them said anything. Marc swallowed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, somehow not disgusting and still reasonably elegant, pausing to talk before starting the second piece.

“She is perfect.”

*

Another day of dirt track went well, this time with Tito, and Alex and Marc were back to normal. Marc was starting to think about the events before the next race, as was Dani. María went down to Montmeló for the day and was starting to think about packing. But they ignored that, Dani took Marc back to fetch his car, finally had his meeting, then went back to Geneva. Marc and María shared a bath, shared a meal, watched a movie and then went to bed, both determined to keep to the rule of no talking about the bad stuff. They didn’t talk about it; they didn't talk about anything, and had that first moment they'd ever had where they'd slept together and said _I love you_ at the same time, everything seeming so much more intimate when the empty house around them was something they'd been missing for a couple of days. The guys met Tito again in Rufea the next day, for the last day of dirt before other priorities took over.

And then Alex broke his collarbone.


	11. You're Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one...I've slightly injured myself so lucky in some ways I get to sit on the sofa and not feel too guilty, at least today! ;)
> 
> Enjoy...?

_“Hey.”_

“Hi…what’s up?” María ducked out the door and checked no one was in hearing distance of the call; they weren’t.

_“Alex broke his collarbone.”_

_Shit._ She felt her heart sink, not only because Alex was hurt, but because her brain quickly clicked through what that might mean. “Shit.”

_“I know. Weird crash, not on the dirt bike. But he should be ok…it’s, you know…still in there. No skin broken. He’s going to Lleida now, I’m coming home. Didn’t want me to go with him. But don’t think he’ll be coming to race…I know Jorge did it but that was a bit different. Moto3 is brutal, he won’t find a gap…and it’s a new track…and he’s not going head to head with anyone for the title. What do you think?”_

_I agree. And I can see the problems already._ “Yeah, I agree. But up to him…”

 _“Oh, I know…I just think if we can keep him safe we should try and convince him to stay away from the heroics.”_

“Good idea. Shall I tell the team?”

_“And say you found out how?”_

María sighed at the tone and realised he was right. “True. Ok…well…I’m about to set off too. See you soon, drive safely.”

_“You too. Love you. Bye!”_

She smiled at that and started to reply before the phone went dead and she sighed again, walking back into the garage and smiling as convincingly as possible as Emilio’s phone rang.

_Shit._

*

“I’m back…” Marc threw his stuff in a pile near the door and trudged through into the kitchen, peering around as he was met by silence. “María?”

“Here.” The reply came from upstairs and was followed by footsteps coming down to meet him. “You ok?”

He nodded and gratefully accepted the hug offered. “I’m ok, and he’s staying at home.”

 _Shit._ “Right. Ok. Well I think that’s for the best.”

“Me too.” Marc nodded and instinctively turned on the coffee machine. “He’s not happy about it, but me and Emilio did a good job of talking him down. Shall I cook?”

 _Wow. What?!_ “You? COOK?!” She grinned at the glare in return and shrugged. “Yes. You cook, I will watch you cook, and then we should probably talk. I saw Fabio today…” She trailed off and watched as Marc clenched his jaw. _Yeah, not going to be fun._ “And you’re going soon.”

He nodded, still intent on ignoring it as long as possible, and starting opening cupboards looking for food. María sat at the table and watched, smile spreading over her face as it took him longer and longer to locate things.

“Top left…now bottom right…next to the fridge….in the fridge…salad draw…third draw down…”

Marc took the instructions in frustrated amusement and eventually was stood facing what he wanted. “Thank you…”

María tried to hide the smugness and flicked nonchalantly through her magazine, smiling to herself. He noticed and threw a cherry tomato at her.

“Don’t laugh at me. I’m trying!”

“Not laughing!” She successfully ducked and watched it make a red splodge on the floor. “Smiling. In a good way.”

Marc raised an eyebrow and then grinned back, opening a Coke light and placing it in front of her. “Good. Smiling is good.” He picked a strawberry out of the container and put it half in his mouth, leaning down. “Kiss?”

*

Alex didn’t need surgery, and he got home later that night; Julia doing the rescue mission and intercepting his son on the way back from shopping. _So casual; went shopping…son broke his collarbone, casually picked him up from the hospital. We live in a different world._ Alex wasn’t too down, mainly happy because it could have been a lot worse, and settled into people looking after him a bit too well. 

*

“So…ok. Let’s talk. Let’s do it.”

“Ok…” The EG 0,0 rider took a deep breath and tried to read his mood. _Not good, but…passive?_ “Well I saw Fabio. I tried to play it down. Said I was staying in the city. But I think…about that…I think I’ll move out for a few months, to start with. Until after Sachsenring and Albacete. Before Jerez.”

Marc clenched his jaw again and shrugged. “Right.”

“Just need to get my head together before anything else.”

“Right.”

 _So not happy._ “Right?”

“Well I can’t do anything about it, and I hate it.”

“Right.”

“Actually, maybe I can do something. Maybe I can say everything I think I should: I think you’re being stupid. For a start, if we talked to Fabio and put some pressure on him, there’s no way he’d dare to do anything. He’s fast and everything, and valuable, but it’s versus me, and Alex, and probably Dani. Well…no. Definitely Dani. If all three of us told Emilio he’d done something terrible, he’d be gone in five minutes.”

“But you can’t lie!”

“No, we can’t lie. But he doesn’t have to know that. If he thinks me and you has anything to do with your success, sounds like he thinks I’m being dodgy and helping you out anyway so I’m sure he’d believe me telling him to shut up or find another ride.”

“No. That’s worse than him, then.”

“Yeah, well…you reap what you sow.” Marc glowered at the protestation and shrugged. “And he’s sown being a bastard, so…”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Don’t tell me how to be. I’m telling the truth.”

“Right…”

“Yeah, I am right. I’m so fucking right it’s driving me insane. Second point: there is no way people would actually think _we_ had anything to do with your success. You have that ride; what you do with it now is what matters. And if you just let us let people in, everything would be amazing. You could come to Rufea, we could have our own hotel room in Jerez when you’re a wild card. We could train together. And the irony is that _that_ would help you, a lot. Dirt track takes you up a notch. And there’s a bike there for you…and I have a track we can use whenever. You know? There’s a track and a bike so close to where you live. And you won’t use them. That’s it. It’s like you’re using this as the reason why you can’t go there, but I’m starting to think it’s because you’re actually getting good and that’s scaring you slightly because at some point you'll realise how good.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

“I said it, and I mean it. To help. Because I love you. And I want to share hotel rooms with you and take you to dinner in public, and I want to look across at you on the track and see that 6 looking back at me and watch you shoot off in pursuit of Alex and beat him. Beat me! I want you to _share my life_. Fair enough…selfishly. But I know you’d love that too. But also because I know I can actually help you. I help Alex. He does my training already! And it helps, it’s amazing. I have more experience; that’s all. I’m not trying to take control. But I’m further up the ladder at the moment. Emilio helped me in the same way; he’s won a Championship and that helps. It’s useful. I don’t understand why it’s a problem.”

“Well you just said it: you can probably help me, but I don’t want help.”

“Well the only thing I can say to that is that nobody makes it on their own. And Alvaro has already helped you, anyway. My dad helped me. Then Emilio. It’s not some sort of Lorenzo situation here where everyone’s making decisions for you and you’re getting fucked over. And it’s not like Puig, who seriously needs to take a step back. It’s like Emilio. I needed help. My family did. We’re both from normal backgrounds and we never had parents throwing everything at us, just help until someone else could take over with that help. So your parents have helped. Alvaro has helped. Monlau helps. Why won’t you let me help?”

 _How did it become this?!_ She stared at him and took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, emotions going up and down as her brain took in the words. “Principle. I just need a bit longer because…” _Don’t say it._

“Because?”

 _Because…_ Another deep breath. “Because…I know I could beat Alvaro. And you know you could have beaten Emilio.” She levelled her eyes with his and braced for impact. “But I don’t think I could beat you. It makes it different.”

Marc stared at her, caught completely off guard by the response, and his mouth dropped open slightly. _Shit._ He took a few breaths and felt his eyes widening, trying to keep himself under control before his brain supplied the only response he could manage.

“Oh. Well…I think, as long as you think that…it will be true. And that’s it.”

He got up and put his wine glass down a little too harshly, walking over to the door to the garden and stepping outside to stare at the sky, no idea what else to say to that, before thinking one more thing and popping his head back inside to say it.

“And also…you’re wrong.”

*

María left for Motorland with everything still muted; after the conversation they’d not really talked about it again, just left it long enough for it to not be heartless to talk about something else and then carried on. Marc spent a couple of days doing calmer things trying to entertain Alex, watched María’s races, watched her win one, went outside to have a moment to himself and actually found himself almost crying at how badly he wanted to have been there waiting in parc fermé to congratulate her. Fabio won the other one, and he wondered about going behind her back to talk to him, since everything was in a state of ruin anyway, and it might make a difference, if not to her, then to the situation. But he didn’t, and he went back inside, and Alex saw the problem and tried to keep the mood up, quite successfully, and then Marc left for Argentina. María went back to Cervera, trained, and made Marc’s soup for Alex. Then cooked another meal for him. Then he slept in the spare room. Then he spent the day on their sofa, and they watched all the practices together. The trainer came over. Marc called and they talked to him on speakerphone. Alex slept in the spare room again. Then they watched qualifying together, both on the sofa. Then they skyped Marc, from the sofa, how they’d been all day, and suddenly realised how close they were.

And so did he.


	12. Monday Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one...!
> 
> I'm kind of going for it on this now, and everything hopefully soon, to start my next idea, which obviously will be another Marquez/Pedrosa Repsol Honda adventure with fluff, possibly called 'Razones'... ;)
> 
> <3

Monday Morning…

_Bang bang bang._

Dani frowned and lifted his head, pretty sure he hadn’t set his alarm noise to ‘angry gunfire’, before realising it was the door. The clock said 6.36am. _Fuck off._

“C-coming.”

_Bang bang bang._

“STOP IT, I’m COMING!”

He almost, _almost_ opened the door as he was, in boxers, before grabbing a t shirt and putting that on, staring through the peep hole in the door expecting Alberto, emergency services or drunk hotel guests. But it was none of the above.

“Marc.”

His teammate pushed past him into the room and sat down on the end of the bed, violently. “Morning. Sorry. I’m sorry. Sorry…” He trailed off and took a deep breath, voice going softer. “I’m sorry.”

_Two guesses…_ “The alarm was going to go off in 10 minutes anyway.” _Massive lie._ “What’s wrong?”

“Guess.”

“Ok, well I’m guessing it’s María. Still not ok?”

“Yeah. It’s María.”

“What happened now?”

He looked up and locked eyes with his teammate, welling up. “Everything.”

*

Saturday Night...

_That’s too close._ It had been under control, although he’d felt the familiar itch as he’d got message after message after how they were doing this and that, always _we_ , never _me_ , but the second he saw them on the screen something just cracked again and he clenched his teeth. “Hi.”

The two in Cervera looked at each other, Marc even bothered by that; about how guilty they looked as they realised the reason for the way he’d greeted them.

“You want me to move?” María looked at him and raised her eyebrows in irritated disbelief. “Really?”

“How long have you been like that? Bit late now.”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Ok, guys.” Alex got up, twinging slightly, and then bent to look at the computer. “Marc, if you knew how much it hurt when you get like this, maybe you’d stop. But obviously not yet. So I’ll go home. Goodnight. Have a good race.”

Marc sighed and hung his head slightly at the tone, realising it was true in a way; if it were reversed he’d hate it. _Maybe I would. But maybe I wouldn’t fucking do it in the first place._ He looked up again to see María staring at him with a similar expression.

“Marc. He’s broken his collarbone, your dad is over there with you and your mum was driving him crazy. What do you expect us to do?”

“Help him. Part of why I love you. But there’s helping, and there’s snuggling.”

“Yeah, one of which I’ve been doing.”

“So you’ve not been helping?”

He knew he shouldn’t have said that, and a curt ‘have a good race’ was fired back at him before their screen went black and he sighed. 

_Fuck._

*

Sunday Morning…

Marc: _Sorry. I’m trying._

María: _I’m going to ignore it until it goes away. Be safe._

*

Sunday Night…

She talked about plans, talked about Alex, talked about Fabio. Talked about everything other than that last admission when they’d talked about it before. Marc said he’d talked to Dani; she didn’t like him involving someone else in their relationship. He replied he felt the same. He replied that that was his exact problem with her and Alex. They argued again.

And it went on and on and on, eventually screaming down the phone, for those reasons and many more, the ones not really dealt with from day 1, Dani ushering people away from him to give him peace, Santi and Emilio shocked at the things coming out of his mouth, shocked at how the perfect couple were suddenly ripping each other apart. He said her name out loud, she got angry because people would know, until eventually he was somehow asking her if she’d slept with Alvaro so he’d help her, and she was yelling and crying at him before gritting her teeth.

“I’ll be gone before you get back. That’s way too far. And with Alex? It was four times.” 

He felt his heart hit the floor and breath caught in his throat. “W-WHAT?!”

“Yeah. I slept with him four times, and we almost made it work.”

_Four._ Marc dropped the phone and leant onto his knees, impact bigger than a crash. _Four._ Then he slammed out the room and left Santi and Emilio looking at each other, wondering how to deal with it, Dani picking up his discarded phone and giving it to Emilio to go after him at some point.

*

Later on Sunday Night...

“You need to go back to your room.”

Marc looked up at his manager and shook his head. “Nooo…I’m having fun! It’s supposed to be a PARTY!”

“Look, I know what’s happened. I’ve spoken to your dad; he’s spoken to Alex. Don’t do this here and now. Calm down, go back to your room and we’ll all just take a break.”

“I’m fine!” Marc grinned at him, completely fake, and raised his glass. “Don’t worry! Never really liked her anyway.”

Emilio sighed and hung his head. “Come on-“

“Where are the grid girls?”

“Don’t you dare make this worse.”

“Oh sorry it’s ME is it?!” The HRC rider glared at him and shrugged. “Well then I’ll have another 5 shots of whatever this is and then go and sleep it off, apologise to everyone for how my girlfriend used to fuck my brother, and then we’ll win the next twenty races so no one will ever know!”

_Oh, fuck._ Emilio closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. _Maybe I didn’t quite know that much._ Marc realised that and laughed bitterly.

“Yeah, see!”

*

Slightly Earlier on Sunday Night...

“Hi.” 

Dani gave a little awkward wave as the door opened to reveal Julia, everything about it weird. “Hi…”

“Hi.”

_Another word. Any other word._ “Erm…ok…don’t know how much you know, but I think you should call Alex.” He noticed the older man’s face panic and shook his head. “No, he’s not hurt. Sorry! I mean…physically he’s fine…but there’s been a big argument or something…”

“Oh. Right…”

Dani nodded at him and started to walk away. “Great…ok...bye…” _So weird._

“Bye.” Julia pulled out his phone and nodded his appreciation towards the HRC rider. “Thanks, Dani.”

“No problem.”

*

María: _We’re over. Goodnight._  
*

Even Later On Sunday Night...

Alex: _She’s gone! Enjoy the party. Really sorry I’m not there. And I also ate one of your chips in 2003 without asking. And broke a glass in 2007. And everything else I’m a bad person. Because I slept with a beautiful girl when she was nothing to do with you. Makes sense. Lots of sense. Cheers! Drink up!_

Marc: _She’s gone_

Alex: _Yeah, and you’ll never guess where she’s gone!_

Marc: _Not home?_

Alex: _No. She’s gone to Talavera. And Alvaro’s probably going to knock on your door in a few minutes. And so you know, she was obsessed with him for months after they met. Have a nice night, BROTHER._

Marc finally put the drink down, walked out the room ignoring everyone else, and collapsed onto his bed.

_Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck._

He heard the door and started to tell them to get fucked before he heard the voice and swore again, catching himself the second before he knew the inevitable emotional wave was going to hit him.

_“Marc…it’s me…open the door. Now.”_

Shiny, happy, beautiful blue-eyed you. 

_Joy._

*

Monday Morning...

Having heard the details, Dani had found himself sat next to Marc with an arm round him, just letting him calm down and still slightly surprised that he’d knocked on _his_ door.

The visit from Alvaro hadn’t been bad; the Gresini rider didn’t have that in him. He’d basically gone there to ask him what the hell he was doing, in a nice way, in a way designed to hopefully talk some sense into him. And it had, to a degree, and the panic at what he’d found out had been replaced by panic at the whole situation. So Alvaro left, not enough sympathy after hearing María’s side, and told him it wouldn’t be a good idea to do what he was probably planning to do, which was fly back and go and find her. 

_“Sounds like you’re saying you wouldn’t let me in.”_

_“That’s kind of what I’m saying. Sorry…I don’t want to take sides, but she asked me if she could stay with me because she had to get away, and that’s what that means.”_

Marc had nodded and gone back to staring at the ceiling before getting more and more worked up and finding himself banging on Dani’s door somewhere past dawn.

“Well the first thing you need to do is deal with what you found out. Remember? That advice?”

Marc shook his head and closed his eyes, sinking onto his teammate’s bed and sighing. “Maybe tomorrow. Not today. Today hurts too much.”

Dani’s phone beeped and he picked it up to look, sighing as he saw it.

Emilio: _Marc’s gone…seen him? Sorry I know it’s too early._

Dani: _Not too early; too late. He’s here._

Emilio: _Here?_

Dani: _In a heap, crying on my bed. With clothes on, promise._

Emilio: _Oh! Well…????????_

Dani: _Yeah exactly. Step 1 I think is get him to breakfast in public sometime before 11am. 4 hours…may succeed…_

Emilio: _Jesus. Right, ok._

Dani: _Yeah, it’s pretty bad._

The older HRC rider looked up as he guiltily realised he’d just been sat there texting, but Marc was zoned out and ignoring him in return, a lot of sniffing, crying and sighing punctuating the otherwise quiet early morning hotel room.

_Not too early. Too late?_

Dani poked him slightly and sighed, going over to the mini bar and pulling out some orange juice to try and set the scene for Project: Breakfast.

_It’s pretty bad._


	13. Wild Card

Marc eventually fell asleep at 7.18am, Dani letting him for the sake of a bit of peace and going downstairs to have breakfast, hoping he wouldn’t wake up before he got back. He didn’t, so Dani woke him up again at 10.07am with the intention of dragging him back down for breakfast. He didn’t want to go.

“I’m not hungry.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t need food. You need breakfast. Can’t sort it out if you’re too tired and no energy.”

“What makes you think I could sort it out, anyway? I mean, how-“

Dani could see the same hyperactive brain-activity starting to come back and held up his hand. “Don’t. Just take it an hour at a time. This hour, you need to have breakfast.”

“Hmm.”

“No hmm, you do.”

“Hmm.”

“Just…please?”

Marc seemed to hear the exasperation and frustration more that time than the first few, suddenly realising it was Dani there and he didn’t really owe Marc any sort of patience or effort. “Sorry. Sorry I’m being annoying.” The younger rider sighed and ran his hands through his hair trying to make it look something like normal, Dani smiling at him in understanding.

“It’s ok. No problem. I like helping people out. What I don’t like is when they make it more difficult for themselves on purpose.”

Marc grimaced slightly at that but accepted it, nodding in return and sighing. “I know, I know. Sorry. I will go and have breakfast. You coming?”

“I already ate.” He saw Marc’s face and nodded, knowingly. “Yeah, I thought it would be a bit strange to sit and watch you sleep…”

“Sorry, again. But also, thanks for warming the bed up!” The younger rider grinned and tried to inject at least a little bit of his normal sparkle into it. “Very cosy. I dreamt about you.”

Dani rolled his eyes and pointed to the door, content at least that he wasn’t just sat there crying anymore, and watched him walk over to it. “I’m going to tell Emilio you’re coming.”

“Right…?”

“Because I can already see you thinking about running back to your room and locking the door...”

Marc smiled knowingly and yawned, point made. “Yeah. Maybe a bit. Ok. Breakfast.”

“Breakfast.”

“Breakfast!”

*

María was in Talavera with Alvaro, and it was true what Alex had said, the younger María had fallen head over heels over head over heels for the older rider the second she saw him. He was pretty, but he was also incredibly nice. One of the people in the world who was created to supply a bit more sunshine. But it was true what she’d said – she respected him hugely, but she wasn’t threatened. She wasn’t threatened by anyone except Marc, really. Not that she knew, well. Not that would be suiting up next to her for her to test that theory. _No Mallorcans or Tavullians will ever be doing that._ But it wasn’t that she thought she would just kick his ass immediately, it was that she knew one day she might be able to compete. But not with Marc. Marc still left her mouth hanging open wondering ‘how’.

_But maybe it is in my head. So maybe I should think about that. Properly. Maybe the fact I want to do that proves it’s fixable. At some point._

She did some training with Alvaro once he was back, and then they went down to Jerez, where she was a wild card. Where Marc was, who had been consistently calling and messaging her for days. She had replied to a couple, but only to things that were neutral or constructive. Begging, swearing, pleading, glowering and random yelling were ignored, which she thought was fair. She hadn’t picked up the phone, though. Only messages. And she was grateful Alvaro had convinced him to not try and change that.

It was on Thursday night, before practice, when she spoke to Alvaro again, because María was so shocked by what happened that she was already hearing him say ‘hello’ and answering before realising who she’d dialled.

“Hi…”

_“Er…hi? You called me.”_

“I did. I really need to talk to you.”

_“Oh?”_ The voice was immediately concerned, interested and waiting for the reply. _“Anything. By phone? I’m 4 doors down from you in the hotel. Are you in your room?”_

“No, I’m just getting back. You’re in 1045?”

_“Yeah. No one’s here. The mini bar is full. I’ll see you in a minute.”_

*

Marc and Alex, for their part, were driving everyone insane. They’d had to see each other because their lives were far too tangled up in each others’ for avoidance to really be possible, and they’d added to that, before face to face frowning and bitching, by yelling at each other down the phone. Marc had felt terrible at first, but his brother had just kept pushing and pushing and almost seeming to _enjoy_ the chance to make himself feel better and let off steam after trying to put up with Marc’s ups and downs, and obviously underneath it quite hurt: he had had a broken collarbone, and no one over the age of 16 can spend more than a few hours with their mother without wanting a bit of space. So to him, it was normal and not even worth thinking about to go over to María and Marc’s house. 

_“I CAN’T CHANGE WHAT HAPPENED. WHY is that SO HARD to UNDERSTAND?!”_

_“MAYBE NOT. But FOUR TIMES! Not just ONCE, and obviously it wasn’t a MISTAKE! You don’t just accidentally find yourself FUCKING SOMEBODY-”_

_“NO, BUT IT-”_

_“DON’T INTERRUPT! The problem is YOU KNEW and you didn’t tell ME. AND YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS FOR ME BEING AWAY, AND YOU KNOW I’M NOT IMAGINING YOU AND HER. NOT COMPLETELY. I CAN’T BE, BECAUSE IT ALREADY HAPPENED! But you couldn’t just BACK OFF-”_

_“I’ve done NOTHING wrong! And no, I won’t BACK off just to make you feel better. Maybe if you concentrated more on actually making her HAPPY you wouldn’t feel so fucking jealous anyway! So no, not backing off! But I’m FUCKING OFF, RIGHT NOW!”_

The younger brother had slammed out the room, leaving Emilio cringing and hanging his head, waiting for the opposite door to be abused when Marc followed his lead.

_Bang._

_...there you go._

*

Dani kept trying his best. He could understand everyone’s points, and it was messy, but the person he thought had probably done the least wrong was María, so he left her out of his equations and talked to Marc, and a bit to Alex, trying to find some sense in the mud-slinging, not really sure why he was involved but also just irritated at the senselessness of the whole situation.

María crashed out of the race, her and Alex had dinner with Rins and the team. Marc saw that and ended up in Dani’s room drinking his mini bar, not at all looking like he’d just won another race; more like he’d hit an errant pheasant on the sighting lap and had a career-low 20th eventual finish.

“I just got a message from Alex.”

Marc’s eyes snapped up to meet his teammate’s and he frowned. “What?!”

“I’ve talked to him a c-”

“JUST TELL ME.”

_Patience, not a strong suit._ “María and Alvaro had dinner together on Thursday night. THAT is not the thing, that’s just the background info. María wanted to talk to him, because she found something out…which is that Fabio is...well... _has a boyfriend._ ”

Marc’s mouth dropped open and he stared back at his teammate. “What!”

“Yeah…I know! You thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

“LEVERAGE?!”

“Exactly. Is she still talking to you?”

“Yeah. Sometimes. Not Alex though. I mean…she’s talking to Alex. Alex isn’t talking to me.”

“Not surprised.” Dani clamped a hand over his mouth the second he said it, not having meant to at all. _Oops._ “Ok don’t take that badly-“

“You think I’m the one who has to make it better.” Marc levelled his eyes with him and then raised his eyebrows, strangely calm. “Just me?”

“Not just you, no.” Dani sighed and shrugged. _Fuck it._ “But you can’t change the past, so it’s either going to fuck everything up now, or you’re going to calm down and take this chance to at least solve one problem: she wouldn’t have to move out.”

Marc’s face reflected the thinking behind it perfectly. _That’s true._ “But I d-“

Dani held up his hand and shook his head, readying himself for the other bit of information. _Here we go…_ “And also…Alvaro tried to kiss María.”


	14. Breakthrough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading/commenting/everything!
> 
> Was a while by normal standards, sorry!

“WHAT?!” Marc’s mouth dropped open as he stared back at his teammate. “WHAT?!”

“Yeah…” Dani pursed his lips and wondered what to say, doing a quick check of the breakable items in the room and adding up the possible total of paying the hotel to replace them. “But she, obviously, said no…and then he went red and she left, and he’s apologised…etc, etc…it’s nothing to worry about.” _Understatement. Since the whole thing was nothing to worry about._ “Ok?”

“She left.”

_Nothing is broken yet. 0 Euros 0 cents._ “Yes. She pushed him away, said no, and left.”

The younger rider stood where he was and the conflicting reactions seemed to almost make him shake on the spot, part of him obviously desperate to lose his mind but another part reacting the same way he would to a crash; positivtiy. React, plan, try again. Dani wondered which was winning, before realising what might. If Marc had learnt anything from the amateur therapy. _Which if he hasn’t, I officially give up._

“Right.” He took a deep breath and seemed to suddenly stand a bit straighter, hopefully to proving Dani’s faith right. “Pfff.”

_0 Euros, 0 cents._ “How…do you feel?”

“Bad.” Marc nodded and took a deep breath. “Horrible. With the situation. But…” Another deep breath. “But she left. She didn’t kiss him back?”

“I don’t know everything, but she didn’t…respond. She left.”

“She left Alvaro. When Alvaro tried to kiss her.” 

_Fuck’s sake._ “Yes.”

“Right. Because Alex told me she was almost in love with him. When she was younger.”

Dani looked at him and finally let out the breath he’d not been aware he’d been holding. “So her saying no proves to you that she loves you?” _Please say yes._

Marc frowned at that and seemed ready to protest before then shrugging and slowly starting to nod. “Maybe, yeah. I mean…that’s…wow. I…part of me wanted to just run off and find someone in the bar and make myself feel better. And she didn’t do that, _and_ it was Alvaro…”

_OH MY GOD WE MADE A BREAKTHROUGH._ Dani started to smile and nodded in return. “So she loves you, you love her, and you have the leverage to at least solve one of the things you were arguing about, so-”

“I know, I’m going!” Marc turned back to the door and paused before he went through it, grinning back at his teammate. “Thank you!”

*

He’d been on the way to María’s room, but eventually went back to his and sat and thought about it for a while, wondering how to approach it, when and where, before realising that there was one thing he should probably do first.

Marc: _I need to talk to you._

Alex: _Yeah you really do_

Marc: _I’m not going to react anymore. I just want to talk to you._

No reply.

Marc: _I miss you so much! And I’m sorry! Please let’s go and get a beer or something and talk…_

5 minutes passed before it beeped again.

Alex: _I’m having a beer with Rins and ‘María and Alvaro’. I’ll come to your room in 10 minutes._

Marc sighed and nodded to himself as he typed the reply.

Marc: _I know about that. Stop trying to make it worse, please. I know I’m the one who’s wrong, mostly. See you in 10 minutes. :)_

*

“Hi.”

“Hi.” 

Marc let the door swing back on the hinge and went back towards the window, Alex shutting the door behind himself and plonking down on the end of the bed.

“Ok…I’m sorry.” Marc caught his brother’s eye and nodded, energy to keep stoking the fire gone by this point. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I threw you out, I’m sorry that I let jealousy get the better of me and make everything worse. I’m sorry that I thought about myself and María before I thought about you and your collarbone. I’m sorry I didn’t go with you to the hospital because I should have done. But I went home, because I was already counting the time before I left. I’m sorry that I forgot to ignore all the shit parts of being World Champion and remember the amazing ones. I’m sorry that you get dragged into all the pressure of it all. I’m sorry that I thought your past with María had anything to do with where we are now. I’m sorry I made that moment in your life something that was about _me_. It’s not about me. That should be about you. And her. That’s what I was thinking about in the 10 minutes before you got here. I forgot that was such a huge thing. It wasn’t last week, it was years ago…but that’s a huge moment in someone’s life and I took it and made it about me. It’s weird; I’m not gonna lie. It’s a bit weird. But I love her, now, and she loves me. And I love you. So…I’m sorry. And you rode a fucking _amazing_ race today.”

Alex listened, face going from unimpressed to receptive and then to relieved and emotional, before wrapping his brother in a hug and squeezing as tight as he could, earning a yelp in return. “I’m sorry too. I’m not going to make a speech. But I’m sorry for all the things I should be sorry for. And maybe I got a bit jealous.”

Marc frowned and pulled away to look at him properly. “Jealous?”

“Of you and her. It’s pretty special, what you have…or it was…” He grinned cheekily and then smiled as Marc actually let his guard down enough to accept that. “And…well…I don’t really want to have pregnancy scares or arguments, but regular sex and affection sounds pretty good.” He grinned again and felt himself relax as Marc gave him his classic ‘you’re my younger adorable brother but you know I respect you and say that with affection’ expression. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s starting to feel like when mum kisses us in parc fermé.”

“Oh God!” Marc laughed and pulled him into another hug. “Well, urgh. Sorry! Again…”

“It’s ok. I’m sorry. For maybe pushing a bit too much. For looking for someone to make me feel better. María. Just as a friend, I promise. But I didn’t have to make it worse.”

“It’s ok.”

Alex started to say something else and Marc held up his hand to stop him. 

“It’s ok. We’re ok. For me anyway. For you?”

“All good.” Alex nodded and started to try and talk again, getting the same reaction.

“Wait, wait. We need to talk about Fabio’s boyfriend and also ALVARO TRIED TO KISS MARÍA!!”

“I KNOW!” Alex mirrored the expression on his brother’s face and they grinned at each other again for a second, shocked but enjoying being able to talk about it to each other again. “I’ve been dying to tell you so I told Dani ‘cause I knew he would tell you…”

“Haha I knew you didn’t tell him to tell me!”

“I said ‘Don’t tell Marc, but…’”

“So we have one definitely loyal ally.”

“Unlike _dirty Alvaro_! What the fuck!”

“I KNOW! But she left.”

“She did. So that proves-“

“I know!” Marc grinned and nodded. “I KNOW.”

“FINALLY!” They laughed again before Alex took a deep breath and did his best impression of the patented ‘proud older sibling’ expression. “And thanks, what you said about the race. You were amazing too.” _And I gave everything today because I wanted this moment so badly and I knew you wouldn’t ignore it._

“Thanks! I thought you’d fucked it up and I did close my eyes slightly…”

“Oh, thanks!”

“…but then I reopened them and Jack Miller was yelling at you. You didn’t…do a me, did you?”

“What, smack him out the way on a corner named after him? No!” The younger brother laughed at the expression on Marc’s face and accepted a whack on the arm as he started pushing him towards the door.

“Ok, enough, enough. Now how’s your Italian?”

“Bene. Perché?”

“Perché we’re going to go and chat to Fabio if he’s still here. Or Emilio if he isn’t. Mafia style. And if none of them are around, we’re going to put an animal head in Alvaro Bautista’s bed.”

Alex laughed and nodded back at his brother. “But not a horse. Something interesting. Like…a panda.”

Marc stopped, stared and then started giggling uncontrollably. “A PANDA.” 

They walked off down the corridor, both giggling in response to the other and jostling for position, Marc repeating ‘panda’ under his breath until he could manage to form a sentence.

“What is WRONG with you?! I’m MotoGP World Champion not a crimelord! A PANDA! Where would we get a PANDA?!”

Alex shrugged and followed his brother into the lift, pressing all the buttons for the floors and then slipping out just in time to watch Marc start to yell at him as the door closed and he was sent on his way.

_I missed you so much._


	15. Higher Ground

“Ok, we need to talk.”

Marc folded his arms and pursed his lips, staring the French kid down. Alex flanked him to the left, blocking the door, as the younger rider stared at them both, nervous, and desperately trying not to show it.

“Hi…” 

“Don’t even try it. You think she didn’t tell me what you threatened?”

Fabio opened his mouth to try and get round it, again, before sighing and looking at the floor. “Right…”

“Yeah, right.” Marc took a deep breath and studied his prey for a few seconds, impressed and proud of how he’d seemed to shrink as soon as the MotoGP rider had walked in. _Higher ground._ “So, you know about _us._ I don’t know why you’d want to try and fuck that up – I thought you might be jealous but then what we found out today makes that seem unlikely – but the game’s over, now. Because I know about you. And I know that if we’re trying to keep _us_ quiet, because María wants to concentrate on her career, then you _definitely_ want to keep _that_ quiet. Am I right?”

The Estrella Galicia Junior Team rider nodded, sullenly, eyes still trained on the floor.

“Good. Look at me…” Marc locked his eyes on the obliging youngster and raised his eyebrows slightly. “You ever try anything like this again with me, you’ll be gone. I’m far from the boss round here, but if me, María, Alex and Dani all decide to bring the ceiling down on you, that’s what will happen. It doesn’t matter if you win every race between now and 2016. You understand?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Good. Have a good evening, you little shit.”

*

He made it just out of earshot before turning to Alex, eyes wide. “WOW that was mean!” He made an eek face to follow it up, feeling guilty but also fantastic, and watched his brother’s face change from shocked, proud amusement into shocked, amused pride.

“It wasn’t. He deserved it. He had to know you meant it.”

“I did quite mean it.”

“I know. Even screaming at each other, you never looked at me like that.”

Marc frowned slightly, pulled his brother into a hug, and squeezed, hard. “I never would. I’m still sorry-“

“Stop!” Alex wriggled free and feigned disgust. “What’s wrong with you? So hug-gy.”

“Hey! I was being nice!”

“I know, and it makes me feel nervous.” The younger brother grinned and Marc joined in. “Now…you have something to bring to the table with María. And actually, yeah…we never talked about that. I have insider information…”

“Tell me now.”

“Alright. Patience-“

“I’m not patient and I don’t have the patience to-”

“Fine! Well, she misses you. She’s been thinking about what you talked about – about her feeling like she could beat you, or something? And she was freaked out when Alvaro tried to kiss her.”

“Freaked out?”

“Yeah. As in, she was freaked out how she pushed him away and walked off. That she didn’t think about it…”

“Bec-“

“Because she realised the difference between the crush she had on him and how she feels about you. Basically, she’s hurt and angry but she picks up her phone to call you every night and then doesn’t.”

Marc felt some of the fizz of the French-mafia thrill leave him, a slight lump in his throat at how many times he’d done that as well, even before it really went wrong. _And it was that Alvaro comment that sent us off this edge in the first place._ “Right.” He coughed to cover the emotion in his voice, failing because it was Alex he was talking to and earning a pat on the back from the taller Marquez.

“Don’t be upset. Just go and find her.”

*

He knocked a couple of times and waited, wondering if she’d answer or if she was even there, before raising his hand to try one more time and having the door disappear from where it had been, leaving him face to face with the one thing he _really_ hadn’t expected.

Alvaro hastened the fastening of the towel round his waist, eyes completely round and full of fear, guilt and embarrassment.

“Marc!”


	16. The Journey Back To Dignity

_Deep breaths._ He could feel the explosion rumbling through the ground, up his legs and into his chest. _Deep breaths._ “5 words or less, what the fuck is going on.”

“I can explain, I just don’t want-“

“I said 5 WORDS OR LESS!” Marc turned and started stalking away down the corridor, purposefully and trying to hide the tears on his cheeks, before he realised the older Spaniard was following him. “Go away! I get it! You won!”

“No, I can explain!” The Talavera native reached out to grab Marc’s hand, successfully, and spun him round to face him. The whole move was too fast and sent the towel heading straight for the floor. “Please don’t think-”

Marc stopped, saw what had happened, went red, stared at the ceiling and followed the journey back to dignity out the corner of his eye. “Don’t think what? You’re naked in my girlfriend’s room and you tried to kiss her.”

“I know. It looks bad. It’s ok…the towel is back now…but, she’s not your girlfriend anymore. I would-”

The line was supposed to be ‘she’s not your girlfriend anymore, I would never have done it if she was’, but Marc didn’t let it end and found himself shoving the other rider in the chest, against the wall, fuming. “WHAT THE-“

Alex, hidden round the corner, had been ready to run in once he heard the older rider’s voice, and as soon as the thud of Alvaro hitting the wall hit his ears, he ran round the corner and dived in between them, facing his brother and gently pushing him away. “Don’t.”

“But-“

“Just don’t. I was listening. Let him explain.” The younger Marquez risked a look behind him, saw the towel had dropped again, replayed Marc’s red-faced staring at the ceiling from a few seconds before and carried on the conversation without looking at the Gresini rider.

“You can explain. Tell me you can explain, or I am going to walk off and leave him to it.”

“I can explain.”

“Ok.” Alex locked eyes with his brother and raised his eyebrows. “Ok? Just…calm down.”

“Trying.”

“I know.”

“Ok, the towel’s back.”

“Good!” Alex let Marc go and they both ended up facing the older rider, similar poses but Alex open and receptive, much less intimidating despite his superior height, and Marc glaring like he’d just witnessed murder.

“Go on then. _Explain_.”

“Ok.” Bautista smiled at him, hopeful in trying to defuse it with charm, and nodded. “My shower is broken. María isn’t in her room, so she said I could use it.”

“Good story.”

“Marc, we’ve been out here a couple of minutes now, she would have come out here.”

_That’s true._ “Maybe...”

“She would have. And what I was saying before is that if she hadn’t told me it was over with you, I _never_ would have tried to kiss her. It was a mistake, but it wouldn’t have happened anyway.”

“Right…”

“It’s more plausible than whatever you’re thinking. Because she _loves_ you. And you seem to love her, but a bit of advice: stop going _insane. All the time!”_

“I do love her!”

“So why are you arguing with me?! She said no! She pushed me away! You obviously came here to find her…stop believing the worst of everyone, seriously.” The Gresini rider was still reasonably helpful in his tone, but the anger at being shoved around had started to rise. “If you want to talk to her, fuck off and talk to her, and don’t shove me around again. Ever.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

“Mm..k.”

“Ok. Fine. I’ll take that as an apology. Another bit of advice: if you can’t say sorry when you’re wrong, it’s never going to work. Especially not with her.” The well-delivered and accurate words might have had more gravitas if he hadn’t then walked back down the corridor clutching the towel, no elegance left. 

Marc stared at the floor and then the ceiling, letting out a whoosh of air in shame, frustration and weariness.

“Don’t say it. Thank you.”

Alex was about to reply to that before his phone beeped and he pulled it out to read.

“It’s María. She’s knocking on your door, wondering where you are.”

Marc looked back at him, noted the differing responses in his face, and nodded.

“I’ll go and find her. And don’t look at me like you’re disappointed. I’m disappointed in myself.”

“I’m not disappointed, I’m just…honestly? I just want my brother back. We’re getting there, but-“

“I know. I know.” Marc nodded and took a deep breath. “The thought of losing her makes me hysterical.”

“I noticed.” Alex gave him a sideways smile and pointed down the corridor. “But that’s the only thing making it likely you will. Go.”

“I’m going. I would hug you-“

Alex smiled again, fully, and pulled him in. “When it’s the right moment, it’s fine. And there are no cameras, so I can keep my suave image.”

“Suave!” Marc laughed and ruffled his hair just to be annoying before taking off down the corridor and shouting back over his shoulder. “You’ll never be suave!”

He made it to the lift, went inside, and pulled out his phone as it beeped.

Alex: _Let’s never talk about it again, but…he dropped the towel, and yes I looked…and… :O. I'm glad you're feeling more secure jaja :P_

Marc: _PFFF I KNOW. :P_

He grinned at that, going slightly red at the memory, and then stepped out into the corridor where he hoped she was going to be stood waiting. 

And she was.


	17. You Can't Be Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Massive emotional speech, anyone? ;)
> 
> Thank you for reading/commenting etc, as always. Hope you like it...? <3

“Hi.”

“Hi.” _Like the first time we met._ He took a nervous breath and smiled. “You’re looking for me.”

 _I am._ María nodded and smiled at him, releasing him to open his door and nod at it. _Always._

*

“I’m going to be honest, because I just keep fucking everything up and I need to just…stop.”

“Ok…” She stood opposite where he was sat on the end of the bed, studying his face as he leant his elbows on his knees and tried to explain everything. _He’s trying._

“First, I’m really sorry for what I said. I’m sorry for how I’ve been. Second: I know about Alvaro trying to kiss you. Third: Me and Alex are fine. Fourth: I just went to knock on your door and found Alvaro naked in your room. I lost my mind. I got angry, I pushed him into the wall and Alex stopped me doing anything else. We talked about it and it’s ok now. But I have to tell you because if you’re going to take me back, you need to know what you’re taking back. I’m sorry for all of that. Like I just said to Alex: I’m disappointed in myself. But more than that, I know it makes no sense. I’m just hysterical thinking about losing you and it’s making me fuck everything up. Oh, and the other thing: I know about Fabio. I went to talk to him, basically, because like Dani said…it’s leverage. And he won’t be bothering us again. I promise.”

 _Where do I start…_ She went through each part of that, impressed with how calm and measured he was, how it really did seem like every iota of the truth, before Marc buried his head in his hands and started to lose his control. _Don’t cry, please don’t cry at me._ “Don’t cry.”

“Sorry.” He nodded and wiped his eyes a couple of times before raising his eyes to meet hers. “I know I have no right to, because it’s on me.”

“That’s not why I don’t want you to cry.” She smiled at him and nodded, taking a couple of steps forwards and kneeling in front of him, just being closer enough to make it even worse to see. “I don’t want you to cry because it hurts me. I never want to see you cry. And I never want to cause you to cry. I’ve not been a saint either, so I’m sorry for my part. But don’t cry.”

“I’m trying.”

“That’s why I love you.”

“You still love me?”

She wound her fingers through his and felt a squeeze in response, Marc studying the sight as though it was something beautiful. “Of course I ‘still’ love you. Believe me, you’re the kind of person you don’t ever get over, even if you spend 50 years trying. And it’s been…a week? And I miss you like hell. So…I forgive you for what you said. I know you didn’t mean that. But I can’t take much more of it. You understand?”

He nodded and locked eyes with her. “I understand.”

“Ok. Good. Because I don’t want to build a wall between us. And if I’m worried you’ll say things like that…I can’t. I can’t deal with it without just locking it away and not letting it in. Not letting you in.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Next thing: you know what happened with Alvaro…right. Dani, via Alex? Right?”

Marc nodded and felt himself just about able to return the smile. “Yeah…”

“Obviously. So, what…oh yeah, you and Alex…I know, and I’m glad. Fourth…well…I don’t know what to say about that.” She took a deep breath and tried to process it. “He’s ok?”

“He’s fine. And it was…better. Slightly. As in, I didn’t lose my mind straight away…I mean…I walked off. I didn’t start screaming at him, I didn’t go near him. But he followed me, pulled me back…said something I took the wrong way…you know?” He looked up at her hopefully and took a deep breath and he saw maybe she did. “I’m saying that because I was wrong, but I’m getting better.”

“I know. That’s why I’m here. I hate some of the things you’ve done, but I know it’s not going to be a repeating pattern forever. Because it has got better. And it will. I trust you to always be improving, in everything. And I trust you when you say you love me.”

Marc nodded at that and smiled, sadly. “I think I finally realised you love me when you didn’t kiss him.”

María nodded and studied his face. “I wish you’d just hear it and believe it.”

“I know. It’s because I know how I feel. And how I feel is crazy. I mean…I loved you quite quickly. And I thought ‘oh, wow…this is real’ and I thought I’d understood something new, whole new perspective blah blah. But then it’s like every day since then I love you more and more. I have watched you sleeping before. I’ve written speeches in my head I’ve never said out loud. I’ve thought about wedding locations. I’ve thought about kids. I’m not in a rush for those things, but I think about them. When I know you’re on track, especially when I can’t watch, it feels like I’m watching my own life in 3rd person. I’m not focused on what I’m doing. That big crash I had a few weeks ago? That was because I saw the timing screen and realised the lights just went out in your race. I panicked, and I mean _panicked._ I suddenly felt like if I wasn’t watching you, something bad would happen. And it did! To me.” He smiled at her and shrugged gently at the emotional face he got back. “But I was ok. And that can’t carry on – I know I have to live with it. But if I know you feel the same, I can. It will all come together. Because you believe in me on the track, I know that…but you believe in _me_ as well. I’ve not had any moments like I used to – stupid crashes where I hit people. Bad decisions. Because there’s no indecision anymore, and sometimes there was before. But now, I trust myself when I think a gap is big enough. I trust myself when someone asks me a question and I’m wondering whether to make a joke or not. I trust that I’m a good person, not just a good rider, because if you think I am…you can’t be wrong. You just can’t be. Not _you_.”

 _There is nothing I could ever say now that would be enough._ She looked down at their hands and squeezed in response, letting him carry on. _I’m not wrong about you, no. But not because of who I am._

“And the thing is…the thing was…the thing that got me in the first place, is that I don’t understand how you could want to move out, for even a week. I don’t understand how anything could ever make you want to put more distance between us if you really felt like that about me. But I don’t mean I disagree with you, about your career or your plans or what you want to do – I respect you and I don’t want to get in the way. I mean…I just…I genuinely don’t _understand._ ” He was back on the verge of tears and tilted her chin up to look her in the eyes. “It makes no sense to me, because you’re an inspiration _every day_. You stand for something more than I’ll ever stand for, no matter what happens. And I love you for it, and I hate it too, because it’s made this complicated. But you inspire _me_ , and everyone else, precisely because we all know exactly what you’re doing. It’s got nothing to do with people helping you, it’s just you. So I don’t understand why you feel insecure about it, and I don’t understand how you could leave me. Please don’t-”

She cut him off mid-sentence with a kiss and felt his arms immediately wrap around her and crush the distance in between them into nothing, getting onto his lap and resting her forehead against his, both their eyes closed.

“I’m not going to leave you. Sounds like Fabio is ok. I’m not going to move out. I feel all those things. I promise. Maybe you left all your doors open and I got intimidated a bit and closed a couple. You’re the biggest thing in our world. You’ve got to get over some things. I have to get over that.”

“You’re not going to leave?” His lips were just close enough the send the vibrations of the words humming through hers. She shook her head and felt her lips tingle again as, this time, he traced them with his tongue before carrying on. “Me or Cervera?”

“Neither.”

“But we keep it quiet?”

Where before there might have been a frustrated sigh, there was now a shake of the head. “No. Because of what you just said – because you don't understand it because I'm _wrong_. I’ve got to accept that I deserve what I get, and that people's opinions don't mean anything. Because if you think I do…you can’t be wrong. You just can’t be. Not _you_.”

She pulled away slightly and smiled as that sunk in, pushing some hair off his forehead, his eyes already starting on the next speech. 

_Yeah, that’s what those words feel like to hear._


	18. Only in Reputation

“So…” Marc propped himself up on his elbow and stared across the pillow. “You’re serious about the whole public thing?”

“Yes! How many times?!” She grinned and squirmed slightly as he groped her under the sheets. “Stop it!”

“Make me.”

“I will.”

“You won’t. You don’t want to.”

“Ok, fine. You win.”

“Good! But…really? Because…I’m worried that you’re not going to like it…”

“What?”

“I mean…I’m probably going to spend most of my life tweeting and instagramming you. All the time. It will be like you have a handsome stalker.”

“That’s ok.” She smiled, warm and genuine instead of cheeky and amused, and nodded at him. “I mean it. Be however you want to be, it’s ok.”

“Ok. Good.” He grinned and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before reaching behind himself for his phone and looking at the screen, grinning. “No time like the present…”

“Oh God. Right. So you’re going to announce it, or what?”

“I was just going to generally start stalking you. But we can announce it if you want?”

“I’d rather it just sort of…appeared…rather than ‘Hey everybody, listen!’”

“That’s ok. So you need to do something I can respond to…”

“Well it’s…nearly 10. We could get dressed, go down to the bar…hide nothing…and then…”

“Sounds like a plan. And maybe we can find Alvaro, and you can apologise. Properly.”

“Hmmmm.” He pouted slightly and then grinned at the look on her face. “I’m joking. I will.”

“Ok…3, 2, 1…” 

They got out of the bed on mirroring sides and put the clothes back on that they’d left in mirrored piles on either side of the room, María quickly checking the mirror for any hair/face disasters, Marc doing the same and making her smile.

“You’re pretty enough.”

“So are you!” He patted his hair around one more time and then passed her the key card from the table, feeling himself relax even more as he threaded her fingers through his and pulled him along out the door. 

“Thank you. Have you got money?”

“Plenty.” He winked and then grinned. “No…but Dani has a tab. It’s fine. I’ve been drinking on it for a while, everyone in the accounts department thinks he might have a problem…”

“You’re evil.”

“Sometimes. But in a good way.”

“As long as he doesn’t have to pay for it…”

“Only in reputation.”

“Oh, well…that’s fine.”

They got to the lift and he hit the button to call it, grinning at their reflection in the polished metal in front of them as she hugged him from behind and pushed him inside once the doors opened, and they started the few floors back down to the lobby, before it stopped a couple of floors above, and the doors opened to reveal Alvaro.

“Oh. You again. Do I need body amour?” He was smiling, as he always was, but there was still a disgruntled edge to it. He stepped in next to Marc and looked down at him. “Again?”

“No.” Marc shook his head and smiled back at him, trying to communicate everything he wanted to say without having to be too overly heartfelt and embarrass himself. “I’m really sorry. It will never happen again.”

“So you listened to my advice?” Slightly warmer.

“I did. And we’re going to be ok.”

“Good. Ok, well…apology accepted. You going to the bar?”

“We are.” Marc grinned knowingly and squeezed María hand that was still in his. “Publicly, as a couple.”

“Ooh! Ok. Good!”

“Join us for a drink? It’s on Dani.”

The Gresini rider raised an eyebrow and smiled. “You’ve got to stop doing that.”

“How do you even know I’ve been doing that?!”

“I have my ways.” He grinned again and the doors opened. “But yes to the drink – the more on that tab the funnier it is. And I was meant to be meeting Aleix and Pol, anyway…”

“The more the merrier, right?” Marc looked sideways and got a smile in return from his girlfriend. “Good. I’ll text the Alexs too. See if we can hit 500 euros by 2am. See if Dani can explain that.”

“You’re evil.”

“But in a nice way…?”

“Maybe.” Alvaro grinned before he let them out the lift first and beckoned over the waiting Espargaros. “We have an invite to free drinks on Dani, courtesy of Marc…”

The two Catalan brothers looked at each other and grinned. “Sounds good.”

“And also…well…I’ll let you do that…” The Gresini rider trailed off and stepped back slightly to let them see Marc and María. Marc lifted their hands, joined together still, and then pulled her in for a kiss.

“Also…yeah…”

The looked at each other again before a round of ‘congratulations’ went round, hugs where normally that would seem strange, and they headed off to start the record breaking tab attempt, joined eventually by Cal, the Alexs, Santi and Tito Rabat. Dani appeared a bit later, non the wiser it was in his name, and even joined in himself.

*

_“Good morning Dani, it’s Lucia in accounts.”_

_Why are you calling me?!_ He squinted into the sun streaming through the back window of the car he was in and frowned. “Morning. Is there a problem?”

_“Not a problem, no. We wanted to check there was no problem with you.”_

“Er…no? No problem with me, thanks?”

_“Ok. I’ll pass that on, but I think Livio will give you a call soon to make sure.”_

_What the fuck…_ “Er…ok…thanks…”

_“Have a good day. Don’t let it get to you, it’s not the answer.”_

The Sabadell rider frowned at the phone again before responding non-commitally and ending the call. _What the fuck do you mean?!_

He was still glaring at the seat in front of him wondering what was going on when his phone rang again and he sighed as he saw the caller.

“Livio, morning.”

_“Hello. How are you?”_

_I’m fine. I’m completely fine. What is this._ “Er…I’m fine thanks. You?”

_“I’m ok. You should be arriving to the airport about now?”_

“I am, yeah. I’m about two minutes behind Marc.”

_“Good. Ok…well, there’s something we need to talk about…”_

Dani listened to the way he tentatively approached whatever he was going to say, none of it making sense, until he closed his eyes and suddenly realised what had happened. “Ok, stop. Stop stop stop. It’s not me.”

_“They said you might try and deny-“_

“No! I’m serious, it’s not me!” He was caught completely between exploding in rage and giggling uncontrollably. “Honestly! It’s not me. I had a tab at the bar, from Thursday. I told them Marc could use it-“

There was a long _aaaah_ of realisation from down the line before the older man laughed slightly. _“That makes more sense.”_

“Exactly!” _Seriously._ “Well…I’m here now, I’ll just go and kill him.”

_“At HRC we advise against murder.”_

“This is a special case. How much was it? The tab?” His brain rewound the night before and he realised he hadn’t thought about where it was coming from.

_“Prepare yourself…”_

_Oh dear._ He bit his lip to stop laughing and waited for the figure to sink in.

_“1865 euros, 76 cents. Including the broken fridge and mini bar.”_

“Fuck.”


	19. Epilogue: Explain the Fridge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we end on Alvaro chapters...and obviously some social media. ;)
> 
> Thank you for reading, as always! 
> 
> <3

@marcmarquez93: @MariiaHerrera_6 GET OUT THE BATHROOM, I NEED A SHOWER! :P <3

He hadn’t meant for that to be the first public thing, because he’d forgotten that the pic that had eventually hit Instagram – from the bar – had been a group shot, and that they had just been posing like everyone else. Sat together, yes. Holding hands, yes. But under the table. He’d meant it to be a lighthearted follow up of confirmation, but groaned as tweets of mostly ‘?????????????????????’ and ‘WTF’ started flooding in, before cringing some more as he realised, not only had it been like an announcement, it had also been…yelling about the bathroom. _Or maybe it will be fine. It will be fine._

@marcmarquez93: @MariiaHerrera_6 I forgot we never posted that picture, before. I’ll do it now. #toolate ;)

_Not sure if this is making it better. But it’s a bit late now._

He opened Instagram, uploaded the photo of them on their own, María sat on his knee, definitely a couple photo, and linked it to twitter, with the caption: “the love of my life, with María ;) … love you @mariiaherrera_6 xxx” and then went back to making it worse.

@marcmarquez93: @MariiaHerrera_6 I did warn you last night this might happen…

@marcmarquez93: @MariiaHerrera_6 I can hear you singing…

He was just typing another one before the shower shut off and he held his breath as he then heard her phone beep.

_Shiiiit._

He heard a little ‘ah!’ followed by a laugh, and then laughed himself as a reply appeared. 

@MariiaHerrera_6: @marcmarquez93 didn’t want to wake you up…also, remember what @26_DaniPedrosa said…women need longer ;)

@marcmarquez93: @MariiaHerrera_6 I can hear you laughing, and @alexmarquez23 @26_DaniPedrosa did you tell her?!!

@alexmarquez23: @marcmarquez93 @MariiaHerrera_6 @26_DaniPedrosa guilty as tweeted

@MariiaHerrera_6: @alexmarquez23: @marcmarquez93 @26_DaniPedrosa it’s ok, it’s cute

Marc blushed slightly to himself and vowed to kill both of the guys. _That was guy talk, and that is sacred._

@marcmarquez93: @MariiaHerrera_6 maybe you do need longer, but tweeting is not allowed.

@MariiaHerrera_6: @marcmarquez93 love you too :P

*

@26_DaniPedrosa: @marcmarquez93 1865,76…I’ll take a cheque…just for damages.

@marcmarquez93: @26_DaniPedrosa jajajajajajajajajajajaja THEY CALLED ME FIRST

@26_DaniPedrosa: @marcmarquez93 @19Bautista not evil in a nice way

@19Bautista: @marcmarquez93 @26_DaniPedrosa jeje ;) never!!

@26_DaniPedrosa: @marcmarquez93 @19Bautista we’re on the same flight. Revenge is coming.

@26_DaniPedrosa: @marcmarquez93 @19Bautista also, explain the fridge?!!

@MariiaHerrera_6: @26_DaniPedrosa @marcmarquez93 @19Bautista talk to @calcrutchlow ;) jaja

@calcrutchlow: @MariiaHerrera_6: @26_DaniPedrosa @marcmarquez93 @19Bautista shhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

*

_Rufea_

“Morning. Everyone else is already here.”

Marc frowned and turned to his brother in the passenger seat as they drove into the track. “Everyone else?”

“I guess he means Tito.”

_You’re lying._ Marc furrowed his brow further, content that Alex would have a positive reason for for it, and parked the car. “Hmmm…”

“Or…” Alex walked up behind him and pointed over his shoulder to the figure just pulling on a helmet. “Maybe he means that.”

_No._ Marc stopped and stared, grin starting to spread across his face. _No!_ “Seriously?!”

“Seriously.” Alex slapped him on the back, more to get him moving in the direction of his girlfriend than anything else, and smiled as he ran over to her and attacked her in a massive hug.

_“Mariiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia!!”_

_“Did you think I’d actually gone_ shopping _?!”_

_“Well…maybe a bit…”_

_“Idiot! And, if you even dream of being gentle…I will kill you. In the girliest way I can imagine.”_

_"Never. And...does this mean I'm doing ok with my side of 'trying harder'?"_

_"Always."_

Alex watched as she whacked him on the head and grinned at the way Marc was _fine_ with it. 

_Never had that._ He sighed slightly and started walking over to join them. _Definitely would love it._


End file.
